


Down the Grassy Road

by commenter



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Nuzlocke Challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 11:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13657701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commenter/pseuds/commenter
Summary: Everyone else seems to have their life decided, but all Jack knows is that he wants to challenge the Indigo League. If he challenges the gyms, maybe he'll figure things out.





	1. Chapter 1

“Jack!” called a woman from the living room. “Are you packed already? Don’t keep Professor Oak waiting!”

A minute passed, and then the upstairs bedroom door swung open. 16-year-old Jack walked down the stairs with a large backpack and sleeping bag. He dressed simply: jeans, a black shirt, and a thick maroon flight jacket. His jet-black hair was kept short and messy.

His mother, a middle-aged woman covered in stress lines, nodded approvingly. “At least you’re dressed for the season. Remember to bundle up during the night.”

“I will,” he replied.

“And you have your rations.”

“I do.”

“And your spare clothes.”

“Yes, Mom.”

“And a first aid kit.”

“I’m completely packed, Mom.”

She took a deep breath, pulled back her graying red hair, and smiled. “Do good things, baby. Don’t forget—You can come home anytime.”

“I will, Mom.”

“Ah! Did you charge your phone?” she quickly asked.

Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed it off.

“Call me every time you get somewhere!”

“I will. I’ll text you after getting my starter,” Jack said as he started heading out the door.

The morning chill of spring nipped at Jack’s face. Patches of melting snow lingered in shaded spots around houses and under trees. While the ground was still dead and bare, Jack could spot little patches of light green grass peppered across the lawns. The wind blew gently, but it was enough to make Jack wish he took a hat.

Hardly any time passed by the time he reached Professor Oak’s lab. He stepped inside the lab’s lobby and a wave of toasty heat hit him. Jack immediately set aside his backpack, took off his jacket, and hung the jacket up on the wall. The lobby was nearly indistinguishable from a doctor’s office. While a plant sat in every possible corner and accompanied every seat, the furniture was made from a green faux-leather. The front counter had dark plywood paneling. Sometimes, Jack could have sworn the lobby even smelled like a doctor’s office.

“Yo!” Sprawled on the sofa, Professor Oak’s grandson waved Jack down. “We’re meeting over here!”

Jack sat down in the chair across from the sofa. “Where’s your stuff?”

“Back at home,” he replied. “Oh, by the way, my name’s John, in case you haven’t heard.”

Jack faked surprise. “So it’s _your_ name now, huh? Not some color or even your cousin Gary?”

John shrugged. “I swear Gramps calls me something new every week. Remember when he called me Matis? That was weird.”

Jack glanced around. “Where is Professor Oak, anyway?”

“Somewhere. I’m not getting up to look.” John asked, “Did you figure out which one you want?”

“Not yet. I keep thinking about it but it’s hard.”

“You’re not going for a water type?”

“I don’t know?”

“Ah, well, we’ll figure it out once Gramps gets here.” John pulled out a baseball and started tossing it into the air absentmindedly. “All I know is that our first two gyms are going to be a breeze—as long as we don’t pick the fire starter.”

“What do you mean?”

“Viridian? Pewter? The two ground-type gyms in the region?”

“Pewter is rock.”

“What rock-types do we have that aren’t also ground? Sudowoodo? That’s not local!”

“Viridian Gym’s closed, anyway.”

John glanced over to Jack with his jaw dropped. “What?! A gym—OW!” The baseball bounced off his forehead and rolled under the coffee table between them. After a second of cussing, John said, “A gym is closed? But it’s not a holiday!”

Jack shrugged. “I wasn’t told the details, but I heard someone took out an entire wall with a Hyper Beam.”

“Holy shit!” John fished the baseball out from under the table and sat back up. His eyes were wide open. “That was a gyarados, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I only heard the Hyper Beam part.”

“Did the challenger get their Earth Badge?”

Jack gave an exaggerated shrug.

John leaned back and frowned deeply. “Well shit. Guess we gotta hike for our first badge.”

The lab door flew open and Professor Oak rushed in. His arms were stuffed with papers, folders, a camera, a tripod, and three pokéballs. As he set aside the papers and folders, he said, “Sorry for the wait, boys! Let me get this set up.”

Both teenagers spotted the camera and tripod immediately. While Jack sunk into his chair, John protested, “You’re not recording this, are you? Come on, Gramps! That’s embarrassing!”

Professor Oak started setting up the tripod and camera. “Of course! My oldest grandson is getting his first pokémon partner and going on a journey! Besides, Lilaea and Gimli asked for a video of Jack!”

The two exchanged glances.

Jack said, “Did he just call my dad—”

“Just roll with it,” John replied.

“Aaaand here we go!” Professor Oak angled the camera downward towards the table. “John! Jack! Say hi!”

Jack waved while John went “Yo!”

Professor Oak set each pokéball down in a row on the coffee table. “Here are your potential partners! I only told you their types but not who they are. Go ahead! Pick your new partner!”

Jack said, “You first.”

“No, no! Be my guest!” John said with a smirk.

They stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Jack huffed, “Fine. I’ll go first.”

Jack sat there and stared at the three pokéballs. He could pick the grass-type. Despite the type weaknesses, grass-types had solid move sets. Then again, water-types were a must for any team, especially in Kanto. Water-types also had higher defenses and a wider range of attacks. But fire-types were hard to find in Kanto—

“Just pick already!” John nagged.

“I’m thinking!”

“Think faster!”

Fire-types had power, but he could use a flying-type or fighting-type or even a rock-type. Water-types were vital but Kanto had a lot of water-types—

“Come on!”

Jack snapped, “Okay! Fine! I’m picking!” Without another thought, Jack grabbed the pokéball to his left and opened it.

Light poured out of the pokéball and onto the coffee table. A charmander stood on the table and peered up at him.

Jack said, “Hello.”

The charmander's eyes glimmered from realization. He smiled widely and said, “Hello! My name is Ignius! Are you John or Jack?”

He smiled back. “Jack.”

“Great! We’re partners!” Ignius couldn't help but beam. His tail wagged to and fro.

John opened one of the other pokéballs and grinned at the squirtle that appeared. “Hey! What’s up? We’re partners now!”

The squirtle shouted, “Awesome! Hey, who else got…” The squirtle spotted Ignius, who smiled back almost sheepishly, and gave him a thumbs up. “Look at you! You got yourself a trainer! Professor Oak, what about our friend?”

Professor Oak stated, “Don’t worry about her. There’s another trainer I’m meeting next week.”

Ignius asked, “So is this the part where we battle?”

There was a pause before John replied, “Nah, it’d just be spamming Tackle or Scratch. That’s just boring. Let’s meet up around Viridian City after we get a real team.”

Professor Oak protested, “What? But I want your first battle recorded!”

“Gramps, we both battled before! I did practice runs with the pokémon here in the lab!”

Jack added, “And I grew up with my parents’ pokémon.”

“So pushy…” The professor angled the camera a little more upwards. “Say goodbye to the camera, everyone!”

John shouted “Yo!” as Jack just waved. Ignius called out “Byyyye!” and the squirtle put up two victory signs.

Professor Oak turned off the camera and picked up the last pokéball and the rest of his things. “That should do it. I need to get this copied and sent to Jack’s parents. You boys are welcome to stay as long as you want! Oh, here, before I forget…” He dug ten pokéballs out of his pocket and set them on the table. “Use these to fill up your team!”

After they each took five, John stood up and said, “Well, it’s been fun, but I gotta get started! I’ve got lots of work to—”

“Wait one second!” Professor Oak passed out two flat devices. The sight of them made John groan. “Don’t forget the Pokédex! I need as much help as possible to fill this out!”

Jack turned the Pokédex on and flipped through the pages. All of them were already filled with very detailed information. He looked up at John for help, but John simply shook his head at him.

John quickly put a smile back on and announced, “It’s been fun, but my newest pokémon and I got stuff to do. À tout à l’odeur, everyone!”

With that, John and the squirtle sauntered out of the lab. Before the door closed, the squirtle said, "I don't think that's how you say--"

Jack grabbed his jacket and backpack. Before he left, he told the professor, “Thank you for the pokéballs, Professor.”

Professor Oak smiled at the teen. “Take care of yourself! Don’t forget to call your parents!”

Jack and Ignius left the lab and stopped next to the shrubbery. As he pulled out his phone, he asked, “Can I take a picture of you for my mom?”

Ignius replied, “Sure.”

Jack pointed his phone at Ignius, who struck a pose. The phone clicked. Then Jack started texting.

“So why aren’t your parents here?” Ignius asked.

“Work. My mom’s got a bunch of meetings today. Dad should be free by now, though.” He dialed his father’s number and waited as it rang….

Jack frowned. “Of course it went to the answering machine…. Hi, Dad. I got my starter today. I’ll be around Viridian for a couple days. Let me know if you’ve got some time to hang out.”

He hung up the phone and tucked it into his pocket. “Let’s head out. We’ll reach Viridian City by 5 pm if we stay by the road.”

Ignius sighed, “Six hours of walking….”

“I’ll carry you if it gets too much.”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll be fine.”

The path to Viridian City was fairly straightforward. A bus occasionally passed, but the road to and from Pallet Town was mostly empty that day. Although their walking pace didn’t tire either of them out, the cold still got to Ignius, and Jack tucked the charmander into his jacket with Ignius’s tail curled out to the side.

“What’s with a fire-type that can’t handle a little chill?” Jack teased.

“I’d like to see you walk around without any clothes,” Ignius shot back.

“That would be illegal.”

“Does that really stop anyone?”

“Haha! No.” Then Jack said, “I know at least one person who went streaking.”

“…John?”

“Not John, but I wouldn’t be too surprised.”

Ignius craned his neck upward to face Jack but then started glaring. “Hey! If you’re going to hitch a ride, at least ask!”

Jack whirled around before spotting something beige in the corner of his eye sitting on top his bedroll. “Who’s there?”

“Pardon.” A pidgey fluttered down and faced Jack and Ignius. Her crest looked short and spiked, and her feathers were still fluffed from resting on the bedroll. With a light and trill voice, she said, “You looked so warm! I just wanted to rest a little.”

Jack shifted his weight onto one foot. “I’m not sure how I feel about being a taxi.”

The pidgey watched him for a moment. Then, she said, “Are you a trainer? May I go with you? That way, you are my trainer rather than my taxi.”

He nodded vigorously. “Yeah! Sure!” He took out one of the five pokéballs and set it before the pidgey. She pecked at the pokéball’s button and the pokéball pulled her in. A second passed….

The pokéball clicked.

Jack let the pidgey out. He asked her, “So what’s your name?”

She stared at him. “…What do you mean?”

“Your name. What do you call yourself?”

She seemed taken aback. “Well, I do have a name of my own, but trainers give caught pokémon names by tradition! It’s a new name for a new life!”

Ignius said, “We do?”

“What do you mean? What were you called before you were caught?”

“Ignius.”

“And what about now?”

“Ignius.”

She fidgeted in place. “…I’m not sure how to proceed.”

Jack glanced downward awkwardly. “Would… you feel better if… I gave you a name?”

“Yes,” she said.

He thought about it for a moment. “What do you think of… of Nausicaä?”

She uttered, “’Nausicaä’…. Nausicaä. Yes, I like that name.”

“Welcome to the team, Nausicaä. My name’s Jack and this is Ignius. I’m challenging the Indigo League.”

Nausicaä asked, “How far into the Indigo League are you going?”

He replied, “As far as I can.”

"And then what?"

"...As far as I can, I guess."

Ignius stated, “This’ll be fun, at least!”

Nausicaä nodded. Then she flew up and perched on Jack’s shoulder. Her feathers felt soft, warm, and dusty. “I’m looking forward to the journey ahead.”

Together, the three of them walked towards Viridian City.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Ignius the male Charmander

lvl 5 at Pallet Town

Docile

Blaze

 

Nausicaä the female Pidgey

lvl 3 at Route 1

Quiet

Keen Eye


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John explores Viridian City

Night already settled by the time Jack got to the Viridian City Pokémon Center. After setting his backpack down and freeing Ignius from his jacket, Jack collapsed onto one of the booths. He pulled out his phone and found a couple missed texts from his father.

_I’m sorry, Jack. I have several things on my plate that require my immediate attention. I promise we will meet soon._

While Jack knew his father would meet with him as promised, he noted the marked absence of any specific date.

_Check your storage._

He’ll do that in a bit.

_So you picked a charmander. Kanto is a difficult region for fire-types, but if you persist in your training, your efforts will be greatly rewarded._

Jack remarked, “Why does my dad have to sound so formal all the time?”

Ignius went, “Hm?”

Jack pushed himself up and showed the texts to Ignius and Nausicaä. Ignius snickered while Nausicaä just looked confused.

She said, “He seems to mean well.”

Ignius pitched his voice up as he said, “’Your efforts will be greatly rewarded.’ Is he always like that or did he go to parties all the time when he was young?”

Jack thought for a moment. “…I did hear he was a good dancer.”

“Your dad’s the Disco King!” declared Ignius.

“That’d be hilarious,” Jack said as he started texting. As soon as the text sent, he started digging in his backpack. “You two hungry? I’ve got some rations.”

Ignius asked, “Doesn’t the Pokémon Center serve food?”

Jack pulled out a bag with two slices of a large bug the size of Jack’s hands. The bird pokémon and lizard pokémon stared at the slices with large eyes.

Ignius, saliva dripping down his mouth, asked, “Is that… real caterpie?”

“Mm-hm. Unless you want whatever the Pokémon Center is passing out.”

Nausicaä immediately stated, “I have no intention of eating bird seed when you have that. Pass the food.”

He opened up the packages and passed out the two slices. As they ate, Jack nibbled on a ham sandwich he prepared that morning. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a rattata walking from one person to another. He noticed some bald patches that resembled claw marks around the rattata’s tiny body.

“Please! I just… I can sit in the box!” the rattata pleaded.

The trainer shooed her away.

The rattata glanced around. As soon as she made eye contact with Jack, she dashed over.

“You’re a trainer!” she said. “Please! Catch me!”

“Wait, what’s going on?” he asked. Ignius and Nausicaä looked up from their food.

“Well, I—just please!”

“Okay, okay! I will! But tell me what’s going on.”

The poor creature sat down and curled her tail around herself. “I ate some berries this pidgeotto wanted. I-I didn’t realize in time. I only just made it here.”

Jack asked, “Would it help if we taught that pidgeotto a lesson for you?”

All three pokémon gave Jack a questioning look.

Ignius asked, “Do you really think we can handle a pidgeotto? Even if it’s low leveled?”

The rattata quietly added, “Besides, that doesn’t… really… solve my problem…. That pidgeotto would still go after me later.”

“Oh….”

She then stated, “I know I can’t go back to Route Two, but I can’t really leave unless I go through Viridian Forest. And if I try to go to Johto, I’d have to go through Route Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven with all those really… really strong pokémon. So please catch me!”

With a pitying look on his face, Jack pulled out an empty pokéball and held it out for her. The rattata eagerly tapped the button. She spent not even a second in the pokéball before it clicked. Jack let her out and the rattata gave out a relieved sigh. The tension in her shoulders immediately rolled off.

She took a deep breath and asked, “So what is my new name?”

Jack wondered, “This new name new life thing is an actual thing?”

She seemed confused. “Well, yes. Um, I can come up with a name myself, if you’d like.”

“Yeah. What kind of name do you like?”

“I like Genny,” she pleasantly said as her tiny head swayed into a tilt.

Ignius said, “That’s a good name! I’m Ignius, this is Nausicaä, and our trainer here is Jack!”

Genny finally smiled. “It’s nice to meet all of you!”

Jack asks, “Those bald spots on you. Are those from the pidgeotto?”

Genny twisted around to look at the claw marks. Her ears dipped under her jaw. “Yes. Those were wounds, but the Pokémon Center healed them up. Are they… they look bad?”

Jack quickly assures her, “No, it’s not a big deal. I just wanted to know if you were healed.”

“Oh. I’m okay now.” Still, she peered at the bald stripes across her body. “…I hope it grows back.”

“I’ll ask if there’s anything. Actually…” Jack pulled out a mixed bag of nuts and berries. “Would you like to eat while I ask?”

Genny stared in awe. “Yes!”

 

* * *

  

As his pokémon slept on the makeshift bed he made with his jacket, Jack got up and headed over to a computer. He logged into his item storage. In addition to some clothes his mother must have stored for him, there were three new items: a potion, a dragon fang, and a timer ball.

With a press of a button, the timer ball and potion disappeared from the list. A second passed. The enclosed cubby next to the computer hummed and flashed, and the potion and timer ball appeared. Jack took the items out, logged off the computer, and returned to the booth. After tucking the items into his backpack, he called his dad.

The phone rang… rang… rang… rang—

“Yeah?” answered a much younger voice. His brother.

Jack said, “Hey, Ag. Where’s Dad?”

There was a pause before Ag snapped, “…Passed out. What did you expect, Jack Off? Today was busy. Now quit calling me Ag!”

Jack grinned at Ag’s clear irritation. “I just wanna thank Dad for the stuff he sent me.”

“I’ll tell him later. Right now you need to tell me what kind of team you have.”

He looked over at the pokémon sleeping on his jacket. “Charmander, pidgey, and a rattata.”

“That doesn’t sound impressive.”

“Just wait until I find a focus sash and a move tutor. Then you’ll see something impressive.”

“Yeah, if you think cheating’s impressive.”

“Give me a break! I just started today!”

“I’ll give you a break as soon as you get a proper team!”

“When are _you_ getting a proper team?”

Ag replied, “I don’t really know. There’s a bunch of different regions I want to look at. And it kinda depends on Dad.”

“Have you thought about just doing it? I registered as a trainer without Mom or Dad hovering over everything.”

“If I want to go to another region, Dad will have to pay for travel costs. It’s not like travelling in the same region you live in.”

“I guess that’s true.” Then Jack said, “Why don’t you travel with me and find out what it’s like? Then you’ll find out what kind of region you’ll want to go through.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if surfing is the worst part of travelling with me, then you know not to go to Hoenn.”

There was silence on the other side. Then Ag said, “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let me see what I can arrange. Don’t hold your breath, though.”

“Got it.” Jack added, “I’m going to bed, now.”

“I’ll call you later.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Jack walked around the outskirts of Viridian City. Genny stayed in her pokéball the entire time, but Ignius and Nausicaä took turns walking alongside him. It was Nausicaä’s turn while he walked around Route Twenty-Two for the third time.

“I swear there has to be a training ground here somewhere,” Jack said. “It’s the perfect place for one! The Indigo Plateau is there, Viridian Gym’s here, and Johto is literally next door. Am I just missing it?”

“By a long shot!”

He whirled around for the voice.

“Up here!”

He craned his neck towards the sky.

“IN THE TREE!”

Jack finally spotted the mankey in the tree. His fur was a tangled mess, and his color seemed more gray than beige.

The mankey jeered, “You’re not too bright, are ya? I thought about taking you to the training grounds to beef me up, but you can’t even find your own shoes on your own feet!”

Jack asked, “Nausicaä, think you can knock down that mankey without hurting him too badly?”

She shook her head. “This guy is just talk. He looks about as skilled as a newborn. If I hit him, he’ll just crumple to the ground.”

Jack pulled out the timer ball. “Then I have one shot at this.”

The mankey just laughed. “Really? You’re gonna try anyway? Go ahead! I’ll give you one free shot! See if you can even reach me with those noodle arms!”

Jack flung the timer ball at the mankey. It hit him square in the chest, caught him inside, and dropped to the ground.

The timer ball burst open, shattering into pieces, and the mankey shouted, “Are you serious?! Was that made out of tissue paper?! A regular pokéball would’ve worked better!”

A pokéball slammed into the mankey’s left eye. A few short seconds later, Jack had a new mankey in his team.

He let the mankey yell as he picked up the timer ball’s fragments.

“NO! I DON’T ACCEPT THIS! YOU DON’T GET TO NAME ME! I’M KEEPING MY NAME!” he bellowed.

Jack asked, “So what’s your name?”

“Tido!” he proudly proclaimed.

“Tee-doh?”

Tido explained, “I have two other siblings. Their names are Doremi and Fasola. Tido. My parents liked music.”

Nausicaä noted, “That’s quite the black eye. Maybe you threw too hard. Tido seems… delicate.”

“I’M NOT DELICATE! I’M JUST A ROOKIE!”

Jack sighed over the broken remains of the timer ball. “What a waste. It’s a cool pokéball.” He then pocketed the fragments and turned back to Tido. “Are you going to show us the way now?”

Tido huffed. “No! You don’t get to see it! And it would’ve been cool too! Every gym leader trains there! The Elite Four trains there! Everyone trains there!”

Jack asked Nausicaä, “Should I call him out on that blatant bullshit?”

“Just let him yell.”

And so Tido yelled during Jack’s search, drawing the eyes of every person they passed. It didn’t matter that some were sympathetic. He could still feel their eyes boring into his skull. Still, he couldn’t let Tido know this. He _wouldn’t_ let Tido know this.

Tido quieted down to just seething frustration when they reached Viridian Forest. Jack followed the hiking trails for the fourth time that day, but he found nothing. Finally, Jack sighed and took a shortcut through some underbrush back to the entrance.

“I don’t get it. There has to be some worn down path to it. It’s a popular training spot!” he said.

Tido said, “Maybe. If you apologize for being so rude. And ask me pretty please. I’ll show you where it is.”

“I’m not apologizing when you insulted me first.” Jack took a step down a ledge. His foot slid out from under him and he fell flat on his back.

“ _OW!_ ” Jack yanked his left leg back and clutched it in his hands.

“I’M SO SORRY!” shouted a voice in the grass.

Tido searched the grass and hoisted up a weedle. The tail stinger had blood on the tip.

The weedle cried, “I tried avoiding you, but you kept stepping where I wanted to go!”

Nausicaä sternly questioned, “You didn’t poison him, did you?”

“No! I didn’t use any poison!”

Jack sat up. “Tido, get into my bag and get the first aid kit.”

Tido pointed at the weedle in his hand. “But I’ve got ‘em!”

“I need that first aid kit more.”

Tido reluctantly set the weedle back down and started searching the backpack.

The weedle insisted, “I promise I didn’t use any poison! I promise!”

“I believe you, already,” Jack said. When Tido passed the first aid kit, he gave him a thank you and started cleaning the cut. His jeans were torn from his calf all the way to his ankle and some bloodstains already set in. He sighed, “I’ll have to get new jeans….”

“I’ll guide you through Viridian Forest, if that makes things better,” offered the weedle.

“…Actually, that’d be great. I haven’t been all the way through Viridian Forest in years,” he said. With the cut cleaned, Jack wrapped gauze around his leg.

“Then it’s settled! …Does that mean I’m caught?”

Jack asked, “Do you want to be caught?”

“It would be nice to be a beedrill and fly,” she mentioned.

Jack pulled out a pokéball and bopped her on the head. The pokéball wiggled once… twice…

Click!

He let the newest member of the team out and finished securing his bandages. “Sooo… do you want to name yourself or do you want me to name you?”

She said, “You.”

Jack thought for a moment. “…Sen.”

“Sen, then,” she said.

He got up, leaned on his injured leg, and nodded approvingly. “I can walk to town. We start training seriously today.”

  

* * *

 

 

A couple days later, Jack got a text from John.

_Meet me at r22 for an ass kicking!_

He looked over his entire team—All caught up with each other in training. He grinned. This would be an easy victory.

Jack walked down the Route Twenty-Two road. Stronger trainers with powerful teams passed him by with their eyes set on the Indigo Plateau. Were they going to the annual tournament? Or were they going to challenge the reigning champion? He looked up at the mountain peak high above him. He wondered if he should challenge the Elite Four, if he got far enough….

“Yo!”

John waved at Jack from the middle of the road. He called out, “You ready for this?”

Jack glanced around. Some of the experienced trainers stopped to watch. A few had wistful smiles on their faces.

He pulled out a pokéball. “As ready as ever!”

“Good! Let’s go!”

They both threw down their pokéballs. Genny popped out of hers while a pidgey appeared from John’s. Jack took a glance over the pidgey and felt his stomach sink.

The way John's pidgey carried itself. Its stature, its steady focus... It had _much_ better training.

Still, he shouted, “Genny, Tackle!”

Just as Genny charged, the pidgey hit first. Genny clutched at the pidgey’s feathers and dragged the flying-type hard into the ground. The attack dealt some damage, but Genny was gasping and quivering where she stood.

Jack returned her to her pokéball and sent out Tido.

John’s face dropped into a scowl. “Tackle.”

The pidgey slammed into Tido twice. Tido swung his foot around and batted the pidgey away before a third Tackle could hit.

Jack switched Tido out for Sen.

John stared at the weedle.

The pidgey called out, “I can just take care of this now!”

John glanced between Sen and Jack and then sighed. “No. Just use Tackle.”

Between two more Tackles, Sen could only get in one Poison Sting before Jack called her back.

Nausicaä was next.

The other pidgey got in one Tackle but missed the second as Nausicaä took off into the air. They both slammed into each other and clawed and pecked before pushing away for one more Tackle. Nausicaä dove from below and knocked the other pidgey down into the ground. While Nausicaä struggled to stay in the air, John’s pidgey didn’t get back up.

John called his pidgey back and threw out a second pokéball. His frustrated and bored expression hadn’t changed.

The squirtle from the lab stood there, confident and eager. Trained.

Jack returned Nausicaä and sent Genny back out.

Genny and the squirtle met each other’s eyes. She swallowed and trembled a little but stood firm.

The squirtle looked back and asked, “Hey, I feel like I’m about to kick a baby. Can we not?”

John said, “We’re doing this. I’m making a point now.”

“Sooo… Bubble?”

“No. Just use Tackle,” he dismissively replied.

The squirtle charged at Genny. The Tackle knocked her back. She got up, dodged a second Tackle, and threw herself against the squirtle.

Although the squirtle had some bruises on him, Genny could barely stand.

“Genny, come back!” Jack returned her to her pokéball.

John asked, “You giving up?”

Jack’s team was completely tired and worn with only Ignius left. But if he sent Ignius out, it’d be a risk. A fire-type against a water-type?

The veteran trainers whispered around the battle.

“Poor kid’s over his head.”

“He’ll have a hard time after this.”

“I remember meeting people like that.”

Jack threw out Ignius’s pokéball.

Ignius glanced about before facing the squirtle. He took in a deep breath.

The squirtle charged at Ignius but only got a Scratch to his face for his efforts. Ignius lashed at him again, and the squirtle Tackled him in the gut. Fire spewed out of Ignius’s mouth and down the squirtle’s neck and into the shell. The squirtle shuddered from the burns.

Ignius Scratched at the squirtle until the squirtle threw him to the ground. He hopped out of the way as the squirtle charged again and Scratched at his shell.

The squirtle whirled around to face Ignius but cringed once again. He said, “John? I’m done. I’m really, really done.”

John looked over the battle. “…Yeah, I’m done too.” He returned his starter back to his pokéball.

The trainers around them gave halfhearted claps. As they left, one of them said, “That was nostalgic.”

After Jack returned Ignius to his pokéball, John walked up to him. His scowl had nothing but contempt and disappointment.

“You really need to up your game,” John said. “I could’ve wiped your team with Gust and Bubble. And all you had to do was train a little harder! I would’ve been cool with you telling me to hold off on the battle a little longer! Either get your shit together or go home!”

With that, John left Jack to his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Catches:
> 
> Genny the female Rattata  
> lvl 2 at Route 2  
> Timid  
> Guts
> 
> Tido the male Mankey  
> lvl 2 at Route 22  
> Naughty  
> Vital Spirit
> 
> Sen the female Weedle  
> lvl 4 at Viridian Forest  
> Careful  
> Shield Dust


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viridian Forest is crawling with bugs, but not much else.
> 
> No. The place to train is the gym.

Before anyone woke up that morning, Jack bought five antidotes and five potions, stocked up on rations for his entire team, and packed all of his things. When he strapped his bedroll onto his backpack, Ignius woke up and groggily gazed at his trainer.

The charmander yawned then asked, “What time is it?”

Jack glanced at the clock. “Twelve after.”

“Twelve after what?”

“Six.”

Ignius curled back up on Jack’s jacket. “Oh we’ve got two more hours….”

“No. We’re leaving now.”

Ignius sat up immediately. His face etched with concern. “Huh? Why? What about food? And potions?”

Jack tugged on his jacket. Ignius stepped off and let him take it back. Jack answered, “The Pokémon Center has a mini convenience store. I got everything from there.”

“So why are we leaving now?” he said while he rubbed his eyes.

“There’s nothing else to do here. It’s time to move on,” Jack said as he slipped on his flight jacket.

“Are you still upset from your battle against John?”

Jack zipped up his jacket. He had a very flat expression as he told Ignius, “Me being upset isn’t important. What’s important is that I keep going.” He finally noticed the bags under Ignius’s eyes. “…Would you like to sleep in your pokéball while I walk?”

Ignius opened his mouth to protest but then stopped and nodded.

For the next few hours, Jack walked along the hiking trails into Viridian Forest with his pokémon sound asleep in their pokéballs. He texted his parents and let them know where he was and knew they would leave it at that, but his phone continuously buzzed with a new text from his brother, eager for new details.

There _were_ trainers inside Viridian Forest, but all of them were bug catchers with low-leveled caterpies or weedles. Battles against them served as nice warm-ups for his team, but he wondered if such training was substantial enough. He needed peers with varied teams. Strangely, though, no other general trainers outside of Jack could be seen.

“Hey, you!”

Jack looked over.

A bug catcher brought out a pokéball. “I need training fodder for my weedle! You game?”

Jack tossed out Tido’s pokéball.

Once both pokémon faced each other, the bug catcher shouted, “Poison Sting!”

Tido sidestepped the attack and swatted the weedle with a Scratch. The weedle swung back around and jabbed Tido in the leg with its stinger.

After wincing for a second, Tido snatched the weedle off his leg and threw it out into the bushes.

The bug catcher called out to his weedle, “You okay there, Wriggles? Can you get out?”

The bush rustled, and then the weedle shouted, “I’m stuck!”

The bug catcher told Jack, “I guess you won.” Then he ran over to get the poor weedle out.

Jack knelt down by Tido and said, “Let me look at that.”

Tido offered up his leg. “It’s starting to cramp. That’s normal, right?”

At that, Jack pulled out an antidote.

“Aww…” the mankey moaned.

He popped off the cap, revealing a tiny needle. He gently inserted the needle into Tido’s leg, pressed a flat button at the bottom of the bottle, and held it there. A second passed. Then Jack took the needle out.

Tido peered at the empty antidote as he commented, “Antidotes are weird.”

“It’s gotta get into the bloodstream somehow. It’s not like a potion,” Jack replied as he sprayed the wound with a potion.

The bug catcher finally freed his weedle from the bushes and returned it to its pokéball. He then asked, “How’s your mankey?”

Tido rocked his leg while crying out, “Craaaammmmps!”

Jack answered, “The antidote’s taking its time.”

The bug catcher sat down by them. “Weedle venom’s non-fatal. Just hurts a lot. Most non-bug-type trainers just take a bus so they don’t run into one.”

“Is that why I haven’t seen any trainers aside from bug catchers?” he asked.

“Yup. They’re a bunch of babies. I get stung by weedles all the time and I don’t cry about it!”

Jack turned back to Tido. “Is the pain spreading?”

Tido sniffled. “No. It’s going back to the spot. It still hurts, though.”

“Do you want to rest in your pokéball?”

“Yes…”

Jack returned Tido to his pokéball. Then he opened Sen’s pokéball. Instead of a weedle, though, a kakuna appeared.

Jack jumped a little in shock. “Wait, when did you evolve?”

Sen didn’t reply.

The bug catcher said, “Probably in its pokéball. It was just time. Give ‘em a couple days and you’ll have an awesome beedrill!”

“Why won’t Sen talk to me?” he asked.

The bug catcher irritably gestured towards Sen. “Do you see a mouth on that cocoon? Is this a psychic-type? Kakunas can’t talk until they evolve.”

He stared at her for a long moment. Finally, he picked her up and stood up. “Well, I might as well carry her for a while. Thanks for the info.”

The other trainer gave Jack a casual smile and a wave. “No problem! See ya!”

Jack continued walking on. The battles against caterpies, weedles, metapods, and kakunas blurred together as boredom set in. He stopped on the occasion to check on Tido. The antidote finally finished working and all of the pain disappeared. Ignius, Nausicaä, and Genny started getting faster at defeating the different bug-types. Endless repetition made great practice.

All too soon, the sun set low enough to cast Viridian Forest into darkness. Jack and Ignius made camp on some bare soil. Genny stayed close to Jack while Ignius took a look around. Tido and Nausicaä slept soundly. Jack placed Sen in his lap.

Ignius walked in the underbrush for a bit. Then he went, “Huh? This is weird…”

He came back and laid out his haul before Jack. A couple cheri berries and, most interestingly, a safari ball. “Take a look at these!”

Jack picked up the safari ball. “Looks like someone stole some safari balls. Finders keepers, I guess.”

Genny asked, “You don’t want to return it?”

“There’s no point by now. The Safari Zone pass these out like candy, and who knows how long this went missing.” Then Jack said, “But I think I’ll save this for a pokémon that you can actually find in the Safari Zone. I don’t wanna get punished for what someone else did.”

He tucked the safari ball into his backpack.

Ignius asked, “What’s the plan for Pewter Gym?”

Jack said, “It’s rock-type so Tido’s doing the heavy lifting. If something happens, I need you in there.”

“What? Why? I’m a fire-type!”

“Ember is a special attack, and the rock-types around here have terrible special defense. That’ll make up for the resistance to fire.”

“Tido’s the one you’re leaning on, right? Not me?”

Jack firmly stated, “The battle against Brock isn’t going to be like what happened with John. I’ll be prepared this time.”

Ignius glanced between Genny and Sen. Genny watched the forest, completely unbothered by Jack and Ignius, while Sen couldn’t emote much at all.

He nodded and asserted, “Then you can do it. You’ll beat Brock without a sweat!”

Tido complained, “Take it down a notch, maybe? I’m trying to sleep.”

“Sorry.”

 

* * *

  

Jack emerged from Viridian Forest, tired and covered in dirt. The hike wasn’t difficult, but the entire walk taxed his endurance. Sen remained in his arms. Her cocoon was completely clean and scratch-free.

In the distance, they could see Pewter City, the mountain town nestled between Mountain Moon and Viridian Forest. While Viridian Forest blended into Viridian City, the forest came to an abrupt end at Pewter’s city limit. A rest stop marked the official end of Viridian Forest, complete with a sign that read, “You’re now leaving the Viridian Hiking Trail.” Up ahead on a bigger sign was “Welcome to Pewter City!”

His phone buzzed. Jack dug it out of his pocket and found a text from John.

_Yo where are you??? Bruno’s giving lessons at the r22 training ground!_

Jack glanced up at the welcome sign up ahead. He walked over, set Sen against the post, and let out the rest of his team. “I need all of you to line up at that sign,” he said.

Nausicaä perched on top of the sign. Ignius and Tido stood side-by-side to the right. Genny stood under it. Sen couldn’t move from where Jack placed her.

He held his phone up and said, “Say cheese.” The phone clicked. After a second, he sent a photo of his entire team grinning around the “Welcome to Pewter City” sign.

John sent back, _Are you serious??? I’ll have to get a bus just to catch up!_

_Sounds like a personal problem._

Jack put away his phone. “Let’s get to the Pokémon Center. I want a shower _bad._ ”

At the Pokémon Center, he left his team to rest up as he washed up. The twigs, leaves, dirt, and bird poop were all unbearable. Despite feeling like he scrubbed an entire layer of skin off, he still couldn’t feel clean. He returned to the waiting room with a white shirt and new pants (his jacket and other clothes in the wash) and rejoined his team.

When everyone looked up at Jack, Tido remarked, “Wow! Your hair’s black! I thought it was gray! Guess that was just the dust!”

“Shut up, Tido. Do you guys wanna check out the gym or not?”

They immediately headed out. While Nausicaä and Genny rode on Jack’s shoulders as Jack carried Sen, Ignius and Tido contended with walking alongside him. They quickly found the Pewter City Gym at the very center of the town. It was a large, two-story building with a storefront made entirely out of giant sheets of stone. Or rather, plaster made to look like giant sheets of stone. The walkway and courtyard in the front were made from genuine gray limestone. It was rather nice to walk on.

Immediately inside, Jack found a large lobby. The floors were made of salt-and-pepper granite tiles and the walls of the same plaster with bumps, dips, and colorful stone inserts. The lobby desk and sitting area tables were also topped with granite. Crystals and geodes on display along the walls added much-needed color to the room. To the far right, people entered an exercise gym. To the far left, Jack spotted a small medical facility. To the front was a set of double doors and a wall-mounted TV above them and two sets of stairs leading up to the second floor where two sets of double doors lead to the arena.

Guards stood in front of the double doors on the second floor. A crowd gathered at the wall-mounted TV. Jack and his team hurried to the crowd and peered up at the TV.

An onix swung wildly at a tiny flying red dot. The camera tried to zoom in but the pokémon was too fast. From what Jack could guess, it was a spearow.

“Let me see! I’m the one that’s actually gonna fight!” Tido protested. He jumped up and down futilely.

“Ignius, hold Sen. Nausicaä, Genny, please get down.” Jack juggled his pokémon for a moment and then hoisted Tido on his shoulders. “Can you see now?”

“Yeah!” Tido watched the TV in quiet study.

The crowd murmured, “—won’t be too long unt—”

Jack started listening closely to the chattering in the crowd.

“Rookies either underestimate Brock or overestimate him. There’s no in-between.”

“That’s a pretty fast spearow. Did you see it dodge Rock Tomb _three times?_ ”

“When’s that last trainer gonna fight? I wanna see what his toughest team is!”

Jack told Tido, “That’s Brock’s low level gym team. That’s what we’re gonna go up against.”

“Got it!”

The onix finally slammed the spearow with its tail. After a couple seconds, the referee signaled the spearow’s defeat and Brock’s victory.

The TV switched off to the Indigo League’s logo. The second floor doors opened and some people walked out. The crowd that originally clustered around the TV and lobby desk hurried to the second floor. Once the crowd cleared, the receptionist sighed with relief.

Jack set Tido down and walked up to the desk. “Excuse me.”

The receptionist slapped on an automatic smile. “Hi! How may I help you?”

“I want to challenge Brock for a badge, please,” he said.

“Okay! Please show me your trainer ID and I’ll get you set up.”

Jack handed over his trainer ID. The receptionist took it and swiped it over a scanner. She handed the card back, tapped on her monitor a few times, and told him, “Jack Verrone, I see you’re registering for your first badge. Welcome to the Indigo League! I have three openings for you next week. Do you want Monday at 3pm, Tuesday at 8am, or Wednesday at 10am?”

“Wednesday, please.”

She tapped on the monitor a few more times. “Wednesday at 10am. Until your match, you may use the gym facilities. Good luck!”

Jack started walking away but he turned back and asked, “What’s with the crowd?”

The receptionist answered, “There’s a trainer getting their final badge today. A lot of people came here to support them.”

“I see. Thank you.” Then Jack headed towards the training gym.

Genny ran alongside his pace. “Aren’t you going to watch that battle?”

“We’ve got four days until our match. We need to be ready,” he said as he walked into the gym.

The training gym was equipped like a regular non-League gym. Exercise bikes, treadmills, weights, boxing mats, and punching bags lined up together neatly. There was even an obstacle course for flying-types hanging from the ceiling with hoops, nets, and barriers.

Jack returned all of his pokémon except for Tido. They did some stretches together before claiming a large punching bag. The mankey cycled through different kicks while Jack supervised. Jack, though, couldn't help but glance around at other trainers. He noted one trainer with a hitmonlee at another punching bag and stole glances at the hitmonlee’s kicks and formations whenever he could.

Tido caught Jack glancing away and snapped, “Are you gonna—huff!—join in or gawk?!”

Jack turned back. His face flushed a deep red. “Sorry.”

“Hey! You’re new!”

Jack and Tido turned around and found Brock approaching them. The gym leader had on an easy smile and casual workout clothes. Brock said, “I’m glad to see more people using the gym. There’s this weird misconception going around that only hardcore trainers use the training areas here.”

Jack frowned in confusion. “Really? I didn’t think about it.”

“Yep. It’s a bit disappointing, but I guess it’s kind of intimidating to some people.” Then Brock asked, “By the way, what’s your name? You’ve got a battle against me coming up, right?”

He answered, “Jack Verrone. I’ve got a battle on Wednesday.”

Brock’s smile grew wider. “Ooohhh! Jack Verrone! I’ve heard about you!”

Jack’s face turned indifferent. “Yeah, the oldest of—”

“Lilaea’s kid!”

Jack dropped the indifference for surprise. “You know my mom?”

“Yeah! She’s my advisor!” Then Brock said, “I mean, I’ve met your dad, but your mom’s the one who gives out management advising sessions! Right now I’m trying to meet up with her _outside_ of the meetings. There are some other things in life I’d like her to weigh in on.”

It took a fair amount of self-control for Jack to politely say, “It’s been really nice talking to you, but I need get back to training.”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah! Don’t let me hold you up.” Brock just about turned away, but then asked, “One more thing, though. Is your mom still single?”

“She’s not looking for anyone,” he curtly replied.

“Ah, okay. Well good luck!”

As Brock finally walked away, Jack took Tido’s place at the punching bag and started practicing kicks.

Tido exclaimed, “Wow! You kick like a hitmonlee! How’d you pick that up so quick?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gym Leader Brock wants to fight!

On Wednesday morning, Jack went through warm-ups with Tido in the gym. He had one more hour until the battle. His heart wouldn’t stop pounding. He kept his face neutral, but he couldn’t stop questioning himself. Did he train enough? Will Tido get hurt? Will Ignius have to take over?

Tido dismissively waved as he said, “Relax. I got this.”

Jack asked, “What if I don’t?”

“ _I got this._ That’s all that matters.” Then he beckoned towards the lobby. “Let’s get a drink and just relax.”

Jack couldn’t really argue.

He bought himself and Tido a can of lemonade each from the lobby’s vending machine and sat down. Jack kept glancing at the clock. Fifty minutes until the battle. Forty-eight minutes until the battle. Forty-two minutes until the battle. Thirty-nine minutes until the battle.

Tido said, “Hey, John.”

Jack jumped in his seat. John walked over with a soda and sunglasses.

John remarked, “You look like a barrel of laughs.”

Tido glanced at Jack. “He’s been like this all morning.”

John gave Jack an easy grin. “Relaaaax. Brock’s not that hard. I mean, your mankey knows Low Kick, right?”

“I definitely do!”

“See? You got nothing to worry about.”

Jack questioned, “How are you so sure? You didn’t fight Brock yet!”

John raised his eyebrows. “How am I so sure? How? Well…” He pulled out a flat case and snapped it open. Pinned inside was the Boulder Badge. “Let’s just say I’m magic.”

“When?! I got here before you!” Jack exclaimed.

“I got the 8am Tuesday battle.”

“Oh.”

The intercom pinged. “Jack Verrone, please report to the front desk.”

John cheerily said, “Looks like your battle’s now. I’ll be in the front row. Don’t disappoint everyone! Good luck! À tout à l’odeur!”

Tido narrowed his eyes at John. “It’s ‘à tout à l’heur,’ you hack.”

John laughed, “Shows what you know! I was in Kalos for a whole year!”

“And you still didn’t get ‘goodbye’ right!”

Jack pulled Tido away. “C’mon. We’ve got a battle.”

When he got to the front desk, the receptionist said, “Please withdraw your pokémon. Both combatants must enter the arena with their team withdrawn.” She continued in a rather robotic tone after he complied. “For your upcoming battle, you will enter the arena from the doors behind me. Go to the designated trainer’s post marked by a rectangle on the floor. The referee will signal the start of your battle. Good luck!”

“Thank you.” Jack walked through the arena doors.

The arena was made out of rocky mountain terrain. Giant stones of various sizes gutted out of the ground. Dips and inclines carved into the floor, and Jack could spot drains at a few key ditches. The ceiling towered high above Jack with stadium lights shining brightly upon the massive rocks below, casting dark shadows across the arena. Stadium bleachers circled the entire arena, separated from every battle with special reinforced glass. A few people sat to watch, but the only ones Jack recognized were John and his squirtle.

Across the arena, Brock stood patiently with an easy smile.

Jack took his place in a rectangle painted on the ground. He took out Tido’s pokéball and waited for the referee.

The referee called out, “Begin!”

Jack and Brock threw out their pokéballs. Tido made a wild cry as a geodude faced him down.

“Use Tackle!”

“Karate Chop!”

The two pokémon charged at each other. Tido slammed his hand on the geodude’s head with a Karate Chop. The geodude bounced against the ground hard enough to chip the rock floor and rebounded against Tido. Despite staggering, Tido retaliated with another Karate Chop.

With this second blow to the head, the geodude floated around aimlessly before collapsing.

“Geodude is unable to battle! Victory goes to Mankey!” called the referee.

Brock returned the geodude back to its pokéball. Then he threw out another.

As the light from the pokéball dimmed, an onix took form. The onix towered above everything. The giant rocks that reached up high towards the ceiling seemed short compared to the onix. Tido and the onix stared at each other….

“Begin!”

“Tackle!” Brock commanded.

“Low Kick!” shouted Jack.

The onix slammed its chin at the ground, narrowly missing Tido. He whirled back around and swept his leg under the onix’s grounded head. The kick forced the onix to slide painfully across the terrain towards Jack.

Jack hopped out of the way and watched as the onix’s nose cracked the double doors. The receptionist’s startled scream could be heard from the lobby.

As the onix carefully pulled away from the double door, Tido rushed to the base of the onix’s body. The onix clipped Tido with its tail. He fell back against one of the giant rocks, but he only seemed bruised from where Jack could see him. Tido charged at the weight-bearing base of onix’s tail and swiped it off the ground with a Low Kick.

The onix fell to its right and knocked its head against the reinforced glass. A horrible screech filled the air as onix’s rocky head slid off the glass and onto the ground. A moment passed….

The referee shouted, “Onix is unable to battle! Victory goes to Mankey! The winning trainer is Jack Verrone!”

Brock returned his onix to its pokéball and rushed over to Jack as he returned Tido to his own pokéball. When he got to Jack, his smile was uneasy. “Hey, I gotta check on Rebecca—the receptionist—first. Can you wait a sec for your badge?”

Jack nodded.

“Thanks!” Brock hurried off to the front door. “ _Rebecca! Rebecca, are you okay?!_ ” There was a pause. Then Brock started signing a response. After a second, he signed once more and returned to Jack with a relieved look on his face.

“She’s okay! She’s okay….” Brock said, mostly to himself. He cleared his throat. “Trainer! You cleared your first gym challenge! I present to you the Boulder Badge!”

As Brock handed over the Boulder Badge, Jack excitedly took it. Then, as he held his first badge in his hands, he felt a wave of embarrassment hit him.

Jack never figured out exactly where he wanted to put his badges.

Promising to find a better place later, Jack pinned his badge to his shirt under his flight jacket.

Brock waved towards the other side of the stadium as he said, “Let’s go out the back way. That front door won’t be fixed anytime soon.”

While they walked around using the back hallways, Brock patted down his jacket and pulled out a small CD case. “Found it! Here you go: TM39! It has Rock Tomb on it. Normally giving out this TM is a bit of an occasion, but I really didn’t have much of a chance to use Rock Tomb on your fighting-type.”

Jack took the CD case and looked it over. “TMs? I thought gym leaders only passed out badges.”

“We all do. TMs are so hard to get ahold of that it helps more trainers if we pass them out.” Then Brock mentioned, “By the way, you should talk to Misty once you reach Cerulean City. I think there’s some things you two could relate about.”

“Like what?”

“You’ll find out. I got a feeling about it.”

They stopped at a fork in the path. Brock quickly said, “That hallway leads to the lobby. I need to go this way to the medical facility. It’s been a great battle, Jack! You really have potential!”

“Thank you!” Jack waved goodbye as he left for the lobby.

When he entered the lobby, he found a cleaning crew sweeping up glass at the arena door and the receptionist closer to the medical facility surrounded by people. She seemed shaken but unharmed.

John approached from the second floor. He motioned towards Jack in a grandiose fashion. “There’s the champ-in-making! I told ya Brock wasn’t as scary as he looked!”

“’Champ-in-making?’” Jack questioned.

“That’s what one of the employees here called me. I _am_ champion material, but I get the feeling he calls everyone ‘champ-in-making.’” John mentioned, “I gotta tell ya, though. You and your team need to be more aware of your surroundings. That onix almost bowled you over.”

Jack glanced over at the receptionist. “…Yeah. You’re right.”

“Brock didn’t mention that part, did he?”

“Not at all.”

John irritably threw his hands up. “He didn’t mention squat to me! Just told me to talk to Misty. He said he had a ‘feeling’ we’d get along or something.”

Jack crossed his arms. “He said that to me too. What’s that about?”

“He did?” John stared at Jack’s face with a quizzical expression. Gradually, his frown got deeper and deeper until he finally just shrugged in frustration. “Hell if I know. I can see why he’d think you two would have something in common, but me? I don’t get it.”

Jack said, “Well, I’m going to drop Tido off at the Pokémon Center. Wanna do something after that?”

“Not really. The only thing here is the museum and I saw it a million times already. I just wanna kick back and relax after all that training,” John mentioned with an exhausted sigh at the end.

“I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll check it out.”

“You do that. I’m taking a nap.”

Jack and John left the Pewter Gym. While John went down a more scenic route, Jack took the direct road down to the Pokémon Center. He handed Tido’s pokéball to a nurse, but then he had a thought. Although Tido was the star of this battle, all of his pokémon trained hard to keep up. The only exception was Sen, who really couldn’t move much at all, let alone train.

He left all of his pokémon with the nurse and took Sen with him.

The Pewter City Museum of Science looked like a textbook example of early organic architecture. The building blended with the surrounding nature, accenting and complimenting the natural features of the mountain town’s environment. The walls had very muted brown colors, an artificial stream flowed through the front entrance and around the entire building, several evergreens dotted the landscape, and the air smelled distinctly like pine.

On the inside, the entrance hall had the same tone as the outside with wooden furniture and large glass windows letting natural light inside. There was a lounging area for kids with colorful magazines and books. To the side was a small exhibit, free for anyone, but since Jack was here, he might as well pay for the entire collection.

As he looked over the different ticket prices, he asked, “Should I go for just the general admission or should I go to one of the special exhibits?”

All Sen could do was stare up at him.

Jack watched her for a moment before saying, “Yeah, we should go for general. Let’s save the special exhibits for when everyone can go.”

He carried Sen through the different galleries, pausing for half a minute at each display. He walked through a gems and minerals exhibit, an exhibit filled with dioramas of various ecosystems, and finally the fossils exhibit. While every piece of the collections had something fascinating about them, the repetitive nature of staring at yet another object utterly bored Jack. As he angled Sen’s cocoon so she could get a good look at an aurorus’s fossilized skeleton, he moved his arms up and down, side-to-side, in stiff, slow motions, accompanied by mimicked motorized sounds. He did the same with the sharpedo skeleton. And the kabutops. And the aerodactyl.

After he let Sen look over the fossilized remains of some ancestor of lapras, he uttered in a mock robotic voice, “Sen 2000 scan complete. Fossil identified. Sen 2000 scan of museum complete. New Objective: return to Pokémon Center.”

Sen’s cocoon jolted.

Jack quickly turned her around to face him. “Sen? Are you okay?”

Sen’s eyes went completely dark. A loud crack sounded off from her back. A large split spread all the way around her vertically. Then, after another loud crack, a beedrill dropped down.

Jack carefully set the cocoon down on the tiled floor. “Sen? You just evolved, right?”

Sen looked up at Jack with clear irritation. “Yes. I did evolve. I finally evolved! I can finally talk again!”

Jack leaned back a little. “…What’s wrong?”

“Don’t ever do that robot thing again!” she snapped.

He glanced away in embarrassment. “Oh….”

She tapped her foot rapidly against the tile. “You also should’ve gotten a ticket for the special exhibits! Screw what the others think!”

“Well, then next time we’re in Pewter, I’ll get us tickets for the special exhibits and we’ll go by ourselves,” he suggested.

Sen hummed pleasantly. “That sounds nice. Hey, I’m kind of tired from evolving. Can you still carry me back?”

Jack lifted the beedrill into his arms, with the empty cocoon under one arm, and carried her out of the exhibit. Just before they left, though, he stopped and looked over at the gift shop.

After a moment, he walked in. “…One souvenir won’t hurt.”

He glanced around the gift shop. Rock candy, fossil-themed lollipops, plush dolls, and logoed shirts hung neatly on the wall. However, Jack spotted an unassuming gray hat with a kabutops skeleton printed on it. He hoisted Sen up to it. “What do you think?”

Sen tiredly stared at the hat. “…It looks nice. You should get it, if you like it.”

“I think I will.”

He put it on as soon as soon as he bought it.

 

* * *

  

When Jack returned to the Pokémon Center, he found John still asleep on one of the booths. He returned Sen to her pokéball and headed over to John.

He tapped on his shoulder. “John… John, wake up….”

John groaned and peered at Jack. “…What? What time is it?”

“9pm.”

John bolted up. “Oh my god I slept through the entire day?!”

Jack replied, “Looks like it. Maybe you should stay here for the night.”

John nodded as he sunk back into the booth. “Yeah. Maybe I’m coming down with something. Who knows. But I’m leaving tomorrow!”

“Whatever.”

“Are you leaving tomorrow too?”

“Yeah.”

“We might as well go together. Mount Moon is kinda exhausting.”

“Sure. I’m up for that. Good night, John.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mount Moon looms over a craggy road. Travelers should challenges from local trainers.

Jack and John stared down Route Three with cheerful determination. The mountain path looked like an easy hike at first, but they both knew better: It was the start of the hard trek through Mount Moon. This would be grueling but they both knew it would be rewarding.

Jack asked, “Are you ready?”

John grinned. “No question about—”

John’s phone rang. He fumbled in his pocket for it and answered it. “Sorry, hold on. Yeah? Hey, what’s up? …I’m on Route Three. Yes, I have my GPS tracking on. Yes, I remembered—what? …No. Look, there’s a Pokémon Center at the foot of Mount Moon. I’ll get it as soon as I get there. Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I’ll call ya. I love ya too, Daisy.”

He finally hung up. “Okay, NOW I’m ready!”

Together they marched up the mountain trail.

It wasn’t long before they spotted other trainers.

“Hey you!” A younger trainer in a yellow shirt and bright blue shorts jabbed his finger at John. “I lost to you back in Route Twenty-Two, but I’ll win this time! Go, Ratty!”

John declared, “That won’t change this time! Go, Hector!” His squirtle came out of the pokéball and the battle started.

Jack popped open a soda can as he watched the battle.

“Oh hey it’s you!”

He looked over and spotted a bug catcher. Jack stared at the younger trainer’s face before asking, “You’re the trainer with a weedle named Wriggles, right?”

The bug catcher nodded. “Yup. How’s your kakuna?”

“Sen evolved into a beedrill yesterday.”

The other trainer pumped up both of his fists. “Cool! Now let’s battle!”

Jack sent out Sen while the bug catcher sent a caterpie. Sen easily took out the caterpie with a Fury Attack. Then a second caterpie, and then the same with Wriggles who was still a tiny weedle.

Jack called Sen back to his side. “Good job! That was quick!”

From a few feet away, John shouted, “Come on, Hector! Use Water Gun!”

The squirtle spat out a stream of water and hit a rattata right in the face. The rattata went down quickly without another word. The youngster trainer returned his pokémon and stomped the ground in frustration. He shouted, “Just you wait! I’ll beat you one day! Remember my face, prick!”

Then he ran off towards Pewter City.

John sighed as he and his squirtle caught up to Jack’s side. “I don’t get why everyone expects me to remember them. I see countless people every day.” He spotted Jack and the bug catcher trading numbers and asked, “So what’s your claim to fame?”

The bug catcher answered, “I’m just doing some research on why Kanto bugs can’t learn Bug Bite. I’m trying out some training techniques a gym leader from Johto published. It might just be how Kanto trainers train their bug-types.”

John perked with interest as he pulled out his phone. He said, “Well shit that’s actually interesting. Gimme your number. I’ve got good connections.”

“What do you mean?”

John offhandedly mentioned, “I know Professor Kukui through a relative of mine—”

“YOU KNOW PROFESSOR KUKUI?!”

John’s face drooped into a tired frown as the bug catcher dissolved into fannish glee. Once their contact info was exchanged, John grabbed Jack’s shoulder and quickly said, “I’d hate to be rude but we gotta get to Cerulean. Hit me up once you’ve got something publishable.”

The bug catcher waved excitedly. “I will! See ya!”

“Later!” he said as he pushed Jack up the mountain.

Once they were several paces away, John groaned, “I hate that shit. Could’ve just said ‘that’s cool’ or maybe even accuse me of name dropping, but they always turn into a fanboy.”

Jack recalled, “I met that same bug catcher in Viridian Forest. He seemed pretty levelheaded back there.”

“Of course,” John sighed.

Another trainer jumped down from an upper ledge and shouted, “Hey, you! With the bad haircut! I challenge you to a battle!”

Jack said, “She means you, John.”

“Thanks, Jackass. Your hat’s cheap-looking, by the way.” He called out, “Get out there, Hectagon!”

Hector the squirtle glanced at John questioningly before charging into the battle.

Jack glanced around in boredom as John battled yet another trainer with only a pidgey and a rattata. Then Sen caught his eye. Her antennae twitched wildly and her face scrunched up in confusion.

“What’s up?” Jack asked.

“I hear something…” she said.

She turned towards an overgrown bush behind them. As they both slowly approached, a tiny voice could be heard squeaking, “I can do this. I can do this. Just… go!”

Jack leaned side to side, peering at the bush, and spotted something blue.

“Charge in and challenge them! Just do it! On three! One… Two… But what if…”

He knelt down and held the empty safari ball out before the pokémon.

“No. No more hesitating! On three! One… Two… Three!”

A nidoran bolted out of the bush and crashed into the safari ball. She bemoaned, “But I wanted to—”

The safari ball pulled her in and clicked shut.

Jack let the nidoran out.

The nidoran had a round body and spots all over her. She looked like a speckled blueberry. Despite her meek appearance, the spikes down her spine looked sharp.

She sighed bitterly. “I wanted to challenge someone to a battle for once.”

“I, uh, I still caught you so… What’s your name?” Jack asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

She impatiently kicked at the dirt with her front claws. “Well, my name is Pippip, but I need a new name, in keeping with tradition.”

“Uh… I…”

Sen mentioned, “You can pick your new name, if you want.”

The nidoran thought for a moment, but then she shook her head. “No. I’d rather not pick.”

Jack said, “Then… uh… Bell? Do you like Bell?”

She nodded. “Bell sounds good. What’s your name?”

“My name is Jack, and this is Sen. We’re going to get the Cerulean Badge.”

Bell asked, “And then what?”

“And then another badge.”

“YO!” John shouted, “I just wrapped up this battle! You coming or what?”

“Yeah! Hold on!” Jack snatched Bell up into his arms and ran after John with Sen flying right behind him.

John looked over Bell and smirked. “You caught a pokémon while I was battling? Was it _that_ boring?”

“…Yes. Yes, it was _that_ boring,” he replied.

“If it’s that boring then let’s get to Mount Moon already.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

While Jack and John restocked their supplies at the Mount Moon Pokémon Center, their pokémon relaxed around the center’s lobby. John’s team—Hector the squirtle, a pidgey, and a rattata—sat in their own little corner. Jack’s team gathered around a booth with a table much too tall for them.

The new teammate, Bell, sat awkwardly on the booth while the rest of the team chatted rapidly.

“With you, this makes a full team!” Ignius chirped.

“Th’ name’s Tido and I’m the strongest. I got us our first badge,” Tido said.

Sen gave Tido a flat look. “Due to type advantage.”

Nausicaä, who perched on the table, said, “It’s so nice to meet you, Bell! I think you will fit right in!”

Genny didn’t say anything. She glanced at Bell now and then, reading her face, but kept quiet.

Ignius mentioned, “A nidoran can evolve into a ground-type, right? That’d be pretty handy. Tido would have backup.”

Tido protested, “I don’t need backup!”

Sen pointedly asked, “So what’s a psychic-type, Tido?”

“Something you can’t handle!” he snapped back.

“Would you both quit?” Ignius growled.

Jack finally came around with food packets and a couple bowls in his arms. “Time for lunch. Mount Moon is going to take the rest of the day so eat up.”

He set out a bowl of beans and nuts, a large bowl of water, and several oran berries. Ignius and Tido got their own cups.

Nausicaä asked, “Aren’t you going to eat?”

Jack nodded as he pulled out his phone. “I will. I want to call my parents first.”

As Tido grabbed a handful of nuts and beans, he said, “You should just ask them to go with you. Cut out that middleman phone.”

Jack’s face scrunched up into an awkward grimace. “I’d… rather not. I know you’re just joking, but it took a lot just to keep them from sending one of their own pokémon with me.”

His phone rang.

Jack took only one glance at the caller ID before answering. “Hi, Mom. …What are you doing at Mom’s? It’s Thursday.” He started walking away. “The construction’s that bad? Yeesh. How many buildings did that Hyper Beam take out, anyway?”

They watched until Jack was out of earshot.

Ignius swished his cup as he asked Bell, “So why did you want to challenge a trainer?”

Bell poked at an oran berry and grumbled, “I want to become a gym leader’s pokémon. Gym pokémon look so tough….”

Tido tossed a few beans in his mouth before saying, “You’re aiming too low. Go for the Elite Four! Like me!”

Ignius asked, “Not championship?”

Tido made a halfhearted shrug. “I’m tough, but no one’s beating Lance.”

Bell shook her head. “I don’t think I’d cut being an Elite Four pokémon.”

Nausicaä stated, “It just depends. We should ask someone for details.”

Sen looked up from an oran berry towards Tido. “Tido? You seem to know a lot about gyms.”

He paused right as he reached for more beans. “Uh… Not that much. I only know what I saw at the training grounds.”

Ignius suggested, “Professor Oak might know. I could call him before we leave.”

Sen’s antennae twitched. “You know Professor Oak?”

“Before I became Jack’s starter, I was Professor Oak’s assistant.”

Tido’s eyes lit up with giddy delight. “You worked for someone that famous? That’s awesome! Why did you leave?”

“I wanted to do something new. I could always go back if I wanted to,” stated Ignius. “Anyway, I do know a couple things. Some retired gym pokémon live around the lab.”

Nausicaä said, “Before we call him up, let me check how long we have until we leave. We might have to save that call until we reach Cerulean.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” Then Ignius chattered at Bell, “So what I know is that there’s this huge application process.”

Bell seemed a little taken aback. “A… An application process?”

“Yeah! It depends on your type and what moves you know and the gym you’re applying for and your skill level but—”

The pidgey took off from her perch on the table, away from the group, and dropped herself onto Jack’s head. His head bowed from the sudden four pounds of bird, but he quickly straightened himself back up and said, “Hey, Nausi. Hold on just one sec.”

Jack waited with his phone pressed against his ear. Nausicaä heard a click and a deep male voice on the other end droning about something. Jack bitterly muttered, “Of course it’s the answering machine. …Hey, Dad. I’m going through Mount Moon’s caves. I’ll call you when I get through.”

He hung up and quickly tucked the phone away. “What’s up?”

“How much time do we have until we leave?” she asked.

“Until we finish eating. I want to get through Mount Moon as soon as possible. Is there something you want to do?”

She stated, “We were hoping to call Professor Oak.”

“What for? Is Ignius getting homesick?”

“Bell wants to become a gym pokémon. Ignius thinks Professor Oak might know.”

Jack said, “My mom teaches gym management to actual gym leaders. If we’re going to call someone, let’s just call my mom. Her schedule is more reliable, anyway.”

She peeked over the bill of his cap with a smile. “Really? Let’s let Bell know right away!”

When they returned to the team, Jack took off his cap with Nausicaä still on it and carefully set it down on the table. He said, “You guys want to call Professor Oak about becoming gym pokémon, right? My mom actually managed a couple gyms for a while, so we can call her instead.”

Genny finally said, “Let’s save everything for after we get to Cerulean City. I don’t think Jack has eaten yet.”

Bell looked over at Genny with a hint of relief before nodding at Jack. “Yes. I’m not going to immediately become a gym pokémon. I can wait.”

“If you say so,” Jack said as he sat down. He pulled out a couple sandwiches from his pack. From the corner of his eye, he spotted John leaving with his own team.

Jack called out, “Leaving already?”

John gave a quick wave as he said, “That mountain won’t climb itself! You coming?”

Jack replied, “I’m heading through the caves.”

“If you catch a clefairy, nickname them Clayton Forrester for me,” said John.

“Keep your movie references to yourself.”

John laughed as he left.

Jack turned back to his team and told everyone, “Since we have a nidoran on our team now, I’m gonna go off the main path to look for some moon stones—just for a little bit. Everything around that walkway has to be picked clean by now.”

Ignius asked, “Can’t we buy moon stones?”

“I’ve never seen them sold in stores. I might as well look while we’re there.”

Bell mentioned, “The deep caves belong to the zubats. Are you sure you want to go look?”

There was a pause.

Jack got up from the table. “I think I’ll buy some repels.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr Catches
> 
> Bell the Nidoran F  
> lvl 6 at Route 3  
> Bashful  
> Poison Point
> 
> Ceto the female Magikarp  
> lvl 5 at Route 4 (gift)  
> Calm  
> Swift Swim


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Battles echo through the caves of Mt Moon.
> 
> Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

Jack stepped outside with an armful of repels. He set down all but one and gratuitously sprayed himself down. When that one emptied, he took a second repel and sprayed every single spot he missed.

Ignius gagged, “Jack! That’s… That’s enough!”

“Oh. Sorry.” He returned Ignius to his pokéball and went back to emptying out the repels. He went through half of a third repel bottle before he noticed that the supposedly odorless repel spray smelled a little musky. Jack tossed the half-empty repel can and stuffed the remaining six repels into his bag.

Jack walked into Mount Moon alone.

The cave smelled damp but with a cool, crisp edge rather than moldy and stagnate like he half expected. The warmth of the early spring sun disappeared within the shadows of the caves, leaving only a chill that seeped into the bones. The mouth of the cave itself was smooth from centuries of human activity; hardly any stalactites grew on the ceiling and no stalagmites could be found anywhere.

As the wide cavern mouth narrowed and deepened, a concrete walkway with railing and support beams rose up from the ground above malformed stalagmites and tiny pools of clear water. Jack spotted a couple flowstones, but not much else. A sign with large font at the start of the walkway commanded attention. It read, “Do Not Touch!” Just below the warning was a brief explanation about cavern ecosystems and stalagmite/stalactite growth.

As Jack made his way through, he could hear faint echoes of voices and battles from deeper in the cave. The walkway started branching off into other rooms and tunnels. He glanced at a tour map and noted that most of the tunnels either circled back to the main path or lead to a dead end.

At a lower level, he noticed a larger opening. The walkway didn’t branch out towards it. He stared at it, wondering….

“Hey!”

Jack whirled around to find a girl his age marching right at him. She already had a pokéball out and her face twisted into a nasty snarl.

“You’re not going down there, are you?!” she questioned. “I won’t let you! The pokémon here are disturbed enough already!”

Jack backed away from her with his hands up. “Wait, hold on! I’m not going down there! I was just wondering what’s over there!”

“Liar! I can tell a trespasser from a tourist! Let’s go, Muffet!” She tossed out her pokéball and a clefairy came out. “I’m warning you now! Take the mountain road or get pounded into the ground!”

Jack reached for one of his pokéballs. “I just want to get through.”

“Then you will turn around and take that mountain road!”

He tossed out Bell’s pokéball.

“Fine! Have it your way! Muffet! Sing!”

The clefairy cooed a long string of soft notes. Suddenly, Jack’s body felt impossibly heavy. His limbs ached from stress and his eyes struggled to close. Bell swayed where she stood but somehow stayed on her feet.

He forced himself to call out, “Double kick!”

Bell rushed at the clefairy, spun herself around, and snapped her hind legs into the clefairy’s gut. The clefairy collapsed on her back and coughed. The lullaby’s effects wore away quickly.

“Double slap!”

The clefairy forced herself to stand only to get kicked back down to the ground. She shuddered and shook as she clutched her stomach.

The other trainer’s face turned bright red. “I’ll take care of you myself, then! Muffet doesn’t need to do all the work!”

When she took one step forward, a horrific fluttering noise echoed through the caves. The clefairy glanced up at her trainer, who could only look back in alarm.

A flood of zubat rushed through the caves, screaming at the top of their lungs. The flutter from their wings and their relentless screaming deafened everything else. Bell cried out Jack’s name, but no one could hear her over the zubat.

“HELP!”

“INVADERS!”

“MURDERERS!”

“FLY AWAY!”

“HURRY!”

When the zubat swarm disappeared out of the mouth of the cave, Jack and the other trainer found themselves on the ground with a few straggling zubat getting back up. One zubat struggled to free its foot out of Jack’s hair.

“LET GO! LET GO!” the zubat screeched.

“BELL, HELP!” Jack cried out.

Bell ran over and cut the zubat free. The zubat finally flew away.

There was silence as the two trainers and pokémon pulled themselves back up.

The other trainer’s eyes went wide. “…Murderers…”

She withdrew her clefairy and leapt down from the raised walkway. She dashed into the tunnel, leaving Jack completely behind.

Jack leaned over the railing. “Is she crazy?! She could’ve gotten killed on those stalagmites!”

Bell fidgeted where she stood. Her face creased with worry. “Shouldn’t… Shouldn’t we get help?”

He stared out at the tunnel. Then, he withdrew Bell and started carefully climbing down. As he hurried through the tunnel, he couldn’t find any sign of the girl. As he followed a particularly twisted bend in the tunnel, he wondered if he missed some kind of branch in the tunnel.

“…it takes…shipped!”

Jack hesitated for a second before creeping around a bend in the tunnel.

Floodlights blinded him.

“If you don’t hurry up with this excavation, you’ll find out exactly why _I’m_ in charge here!”

Once his eyes adjusted, he could finally see the cavern room before him.

An excavation team in black uniforms picked tirelessly at the floor of the massive cavern room. Countless crates piled up at the far end of the room, ready for shipping. Each time a section of rock got unearthed, the workers carefully fitted the rocks inside one of the crates.

Jack leaned forward and took a step—

“ _Ah!_ ” His foot slipped and down, down, down he slid on that sloped wall. He crashed into a shallow pit. Jack cried out in pain and grabbed his left leg. A stabbing, white-hot pain shot up from his ankle to his knee. When his eyes came into focus, he found himself surrounded.

Team Rocket.

One Rocket grunt lifted Jack by his backpack. “Sir! We got another intruder!”

“Yeah, I saw that.” One Team Rocket member pushed his way through the crowd. He had sharp eyes and an angular face. Teal hair poked from under his black hat. He took a glance over Jack then shooed the other grunts away. “Go on, get back to work! I’ll handle this from here.”

The grunt holding him dropped him on his left leg.

“ _AAHH!_ ” Jack clutched at his leg.

“Tch tch tch… Broke your leg on that fall? How sad!” the Rocket member cooed. He picked up Jack’s hat and gingerly placed it back on his head. “You’re lucky you didn’t land on your stupid neck.”

“Quit playing around, Proton! We’ve got work to do!”

Proton whipped back and snapped, “Then get off your ass and do something!”

He snatched the collar of Jack’s shirt, but when he dragged the teen just a little, he stopped to peer at something. A sneer stretched across his face. “Well, well, well!” He picked up three pokéballs. “ _Someone_ didn’t secure their pokémon! Really, you should’ve known better! What if you fell on their delicate little containers?”

Proton dragged Jack over to the cargo. As they approached, Jack spotted a bound adult with a cloth bag securely tied over their head. He felt the blood drain from his face.

After setting Jack’s pokéballs aside, Proton dropped Jack against a short stack of crates close to a card table and a couple foldup chairs. Another Rocket member with purple hair lounged on his own chair with his feet propped up. This Rocket member only spared a glance at Jack before going back to dozing. Proton stripped Jack’s backpack from him and set it on the card table. When Jack reached for it, Proton pressed his boot against Jack’s face.

“Uh-uh, kiddo! Consider this confiscated. Now sit down and be quiet.” He shoved Jack back to the ground.

Proton sat down and started searching through the backpack. He set the rest of Jack’s pokéballs and his wallet aside.

“MMMMN! MMMN! MMMMMMMN!” The bound captive across from Jack strained against their binds.

Proton sighed irritably. He picked up a crowbar from the other side of his chair and walked over. “I swear to god, if you don’t shut UP—”

The crowbar made a dull _thud_ against the captive’s skull.

“Interpol will have to drag the Cerulean River to find your body!”

Proton returned to the table, muttering, “Now let’s see who you are, kid….”

He opened up the wallet. His eyes widened before dropping into a tired look. “Oh. Great. Now I gotta put on the kid gloves.”

The other Rocket member asked, “What is it?”

“Look at this, Petrel. He’s a Verrone.”

Petrel finally sat up and looked over the wallet. An easy grin spread across his face. “Ooohhh. Looks like we found him! Don’t need to bother with any other trainers who dig too close.”

Jack carefully started inching closer to the card table.

“You’d think the first thing he’s taught is to keep his nose out of shit,” Proton grumbled as he packed the bag back up. “We could’ve had a little extra spending money from these pokémon!”

Petrel motioned towards Jack. “He’s trying something.”

Jack yanked himself up and dove for his backpack. He snatched it away from Proton and swung around for a mad dash—

His left leg gave out.

Jack collapsed onto the cavern floor.

Proton rolled his eyes and yanked the backpack away. Jack clung to the backpack for dear life.

“LET GO!” shouted Jack.

“Look, kid, don’t make this hard for the both of us. The Boss wants you alive and in one piece, but he never said anything about broken bones.”

Petrel said, “Just stuff him in a crate. We won’t have to bother then.”

Jack took one quick glance at the sealed crates before crying out, “No! Wait, don’t!”

Proton shouted, “Then behave like a good brat!”

With a loud _CRASH,_ an entire stack of crates fell over. Pieces of fossils, straw, and wooden planks lay in a haphazard pile. The bound captive leaned against the last crate at the base of the now-destroyed stack.

Proton dropped Jack’s backpack. He marched over with a boiling fury and dragged the captive aside. Through the gag, the captive kept screaming, “MMMMN! MMN! MMMMN!”

Jack made himself look away. He pulled himself behind another large stack as several grunts started cleaning up the broken crates. The screams suddenly stopped. His hands shook as he opened his bag and counted his pokéballs. Two, three, five, six—All there! Good. Yet still, the knot in his stomach refused to loosen.

His hands fumbled as he tried to grab Ignius’s pokéball. If he could just stop shaking if he could just use Smokescreen—

“Finally!” Proton exclaimed. “Someone go dump the body. I’m not doing it after all that.”

There was a pause.

“…Petrel. Where’d the brat go?”

“He’s not over there?”

He let Ignius out.

Smoke flooded the cargo area. Jack limped away from the cargo with Ignius in his arms as the Team Rocket grunts scrambled to find their bearings. He glanced around frantically.

“There he is!”

Ignius pushed himself out of Jack’s arms and waited for one of the Rocket grunts to catch up to them. He spat out a frenzy of embers at their feet, creating a wall of sparks and flames.

A pokéball soared through the air and a koffing came out. The Rocket grunt closest to the fire shouted, “Smog!”

The koffing spewed out noxious green gas. Ignius backed away from it and blew out more smoke.

“Tackle!”

The koffing charged forward but completely missed as Ignius sidestepped the attacker. His claws gleamed with a metallic sheen and slashed at the koffing. Although the attack didn’t do much, the force was enough to knock the koffing away.

Another Rocket grunt sent out an ekans. The ekans slithered through the dying sparks, not caring about any burns, and lunged at Ignius.

Ignius flinched and spat out fire right in the ekans’s face.

Out from the side, a rattata dashed into Ignius and bit his shoulder hard. Ignius barely shook the rattata off before backing up against Jack’s right leg.

Proton strolled up as he dismissively shouted, “The situation is under control! The rest of you get back to work!” He turned towards Jack. “Kid, just give up. You keep pushing that leg and it’s gonna be completely ruined. What will you do then?”

Jack dug his teeth into his lip as the pain from his leg mounted. He kept his weight on his right leg yet his left leg felt as though a knife slowly carved up to his knee.

Proton shrugged. “I just need to wait here until you finally fall right back on your ass. But you made a good show, so be proud of that!”

Ignius snarled. A dim white light enveloped him. His form grew in bulk and size, large enough to push Jack back down. The light disappeared and revealed Ignius as a charmeleon.

Proton looked unimpressed. “That’s sweet. Your pokémon evolved for you! Shame I’m going to smear its guts across the ground!”

A pink streak zipped out and slapped Proton to the ground. Just as everyone realized what happened, a clefairy hopped over to Ignius’s side.

“Sir!”

“Mr. Proton!”

The trainer from earlier appeared by Jack and lifted him up in a fireman’s carry. She shouted, “Muffet! Charmeleon! We need to get out now!”

While the clefairy followed unquestioningly, Ignius seemed somewhat affronted, but he followed anyway. The other trainer dipped into a cramped tunnel with Rocket grunts and their pokémon hot on their heels. Suddenly, countless geodudes poured out of the tunnel and pelted Team Rocket with rocks. As they disappeared into the tunnel, they could hear Proton scream, “OOOH NO! WE CHASED YOU OFF BEFORE! WE’LL DO IT AGAIN!”

Jack asked, “Wait, what about them? The geodudes?”

“They’ve been planning this ever since Team Rocket set up here. It’s _their_ tunnels, after all. We’re lucky they let me grab you before the attack.”

They turned a sharp corner before stopping just before a steep incline. The trainer carefully set Jack down. Finally, she let herself relax and gasp for breath. Then she got out her first aid kid.

“Let’s… Let’s get that leg… set before the adrenalin rush… fades away,” she said.

Jack pulled back the leg of his jeans, wincing as the fabric rubbed the break. His ankle puffed up to almost twice its normal size, the massive bruising already had a deep purple color, and his shoe strained at the seams. The pain from the ankle started getting sharper and sharper as the quiet set in.

She hissed at the sight of it. “…Yeah, let’s get this done now.” She took out a bowl and poured the entire contents of a hyper potion in it and then dipped thick gauze into the bowl.

As Jack carefully took off his shoe and sock, he asked, “Who _are_ you, anyway? I mean, thank you for saving me, but what’s up with carrying me army style?”

She said, “I’m Iris. I’m training to become a pokémon ranger. I got assigned Mount Moon since it’s supposed to be ‘easy.’ Then all this happened.”

Ignius, who refused to look away from the tunnel’s exit, questioned, “Are we really safe here? They could still come after us.”

Iris took out the gauze and wrapped Jack’s ankle and foot with it. “We don’t really have much of a choice outside trusting the geodudes are holding up. We still have to wait for Jack’s ankle to heal up to at least usable.”

“How long do we have to wait?” he asked.

“Five minutes.”

Ignius tapped his claws against the cavern floor as time ticked by. Jack could feel the tiny bones in his ankle realign. The bones ached and his foot felt swelteringly heated. The gauze dried quickly, leaving it with a rough, itchy texture. Once the gauze was completely dried up, Iris removed the used-up gauze and properly wrapped the foot.

As Jack tapped the still-swollen ankle, Iris took out a grappling hook with a long rope from her pack. “And also? Speaking from experience, you’re gonna crave every kind of food possible. Yogurt, fruit, fish, vegetables—All of it.”

Jack stood up and leaned some weight into his left foot. The swelling hadn’t died down yet and it still felt weak. The pain was mostly gone, however.

Iris flung the grappling hook up to the top of the incline and gave it a test tug. When the hook proved secure, she couldn’t help but giddily fidget in place. She quickly regained her composure and commanded, “Okay, let’s go!”

With Iris in the lead, Jack and Ignius climbed up the steep slope. The clefairy fluttered up the slope with her tiny wings. When they both made it to the top, Jack dropped down to the ground and panted heavily.

Ignius immediately questioned, “Is it your foot again? Can you get up?”

“Stop. I just…” Jack heaved out a heavy pant. “Need to do… more push ups. Ugh…”

As she wrapped her grappling hook back together, Iris said, “Time and place! Let’s get going!”

Jack pushed himself back up again. They walked through the tight tunnel, battles echoing from behind them. The path opened up to a large room with yellow stalagmites rising up from the floor. A concrete walkway snaked through the rock formations.

Iris sighed from relief at the sight of the walkway. “Okay. We’re close to the Cerulean entrance. Think your ankle will make it until we get out?”

“Yeah. Let’s just… go…”

 

* * *

 

The campfire cracked in the quiet twilight. The glow of Cerulean City barely reached the mountain trail where Iris and Jack made their camp. They sat wordlessly without even looking at each other, heavy blankets wrapped around them. Ignius kept curled up next to the fire. The clefairy contended herself with sleeping in Iris’s arms.

After a moment, Jack made himself ask, “Did… someone really… _die_ back there?”

Iris nodded.

He pulled the blanket tighter.

“How’s your ankle?” she asked.

“It doesn’t hurt.” That was mostly true. The hyper potion did its job and repaired every single fracture, but the swelling still remained. Wearing a sock felt awkward and constrictive. His left shoe lay on its side on the ground.

Then he said, “Thank you… for saving my life.”

Iris finally looked at him, but then she turned back towards the fire. “…I’m glad you’re okay. I…” She hesitated a moment. “I’m sorry for what happened. I should’ve just let you by.”

“I planned on looking for a moon stone. I probably would’ve gotten caught anyway.”

“…Did you get one?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

The fire cracked loudly as a log split. Nothing else could be said the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr Catches  
> Alun the male Zubat  
> lvl 7 at Mt Moon  
> Careful  
> Inner Focus
> 
> Team Update!  
> Ignius evolved into Charmeleon!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night cold and the campfire hardly warm, the events in Mount Moon finally sink in.

Jack couldn’t sleep that night.

The terrain was too rocky, his ankle never felt comfortable, the chill in the air sunk into his bones, and every little noise sounded like a footstep. Some pokémon chattered in a nearby tree. Sometime during the dead of night, a pair of trainers strolled by.

With a groan, Jack finally gave up. He pulled his phone out and checked it.

Four missed calls, a voice mail, and a text from his father that read, _Call me._

He sighed as his hand dropped back to the ground. He’ll call back in the morning.

“Can’t sleep either?”

Jack glanced over at Ignius, who stared back with a groggy look.

“Not really,” he answered.

“I don’t think they’re looking for us,” Ignius mumbled. “All we need to focus on is getting to Cerulean City.”

“I guess.”

Ignius grinned as his voice perked up. “I hear Cerulean City has nice parks and really good seafood. And Cerulean Cape! We should visit that!”

“Okay.”

“The Cerulean Gym also hosts water ballets.”

“Not really my thing…” Then Jack thought for a moment. “…Actually, it wouldn’t hurt to check those out.”

“Yeah!” Ignius chirped just under his breath. “We’ll check out so many tourist traps that you’ll forget about battl—” He stopped. His brow furrowed deep as he glanced around towards the sky.

Jack sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“I hear something.”

“Keep an eye out for it.” He got out of his bedroll and shook Iris awake. Just when she reluctantly got up, something large landed next to the campfire.

Revealed by the faint campfire, a massive honchkrow peered down at them. It sat there as its rider stepped down. The figure—a rather large and bulky silhouette—stepped into the dim firelight.

The Viridian Gym Leader Giovanni glanced over the entire campsite before keeping his sight on Jack. His eyes, although bloodshot and burdened with bags as dark as his hiking clothes, kept sharp and steady on the teen.

Jack immediately glanced away sheepishly. “Hi, Dad…”

“Tell me you didn’t walk through the Mount Moon caves and were simply ignoring my calls,” said Giovanni.

“I… walked through Mount Moon.”

Giovanni snapped, “And you did so knowing Team Rocket was spotted entering the caves?”

Jack finally looked back at him and exclaimed, “What? No! I had no idea! How did you even know?”

Giovanni pinched the bridge of his nose as he grimaced. “Did you even look at local news?”

“I don’t really look at the news.”

“Jack, checking regional advisories and local news for potential hazards is a vital skill for travelling. Do you just use that phone as a paperweight?” he stressed.

Jack fell silent.

Iris stepped up to Jack’s side. “Get off his back! Today was a hard day for him!”

Giovanni glanced over to her, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “And who are you?”

“Ranger Apprentice Iris! I’m escorting Jack here to Cerulean!” she proclaimed, her stance straight and tall.

He told her, “It would be best if you returned to your station. I need to speak with my son without undue interference.”

“It’d be best if I stayed here in case there are any questions I could answer, as well to make sure both of you get down from the hiking trail safely. As a ranger, it’s my responsibility to make sure people are safe!”

He narrowed his eyes. “As a gym leader, I don’t need your help.”

Iris seemed taken aback but stood firm. “Gym leader? Do you have any proof of that, sir?”

Giovanni pulled out his wallet and showed his ID.

Iris shifted uncomfortably. “Still! It’s better safe than sorry!”

He stared at her for a moment before dismissively saying, “…Whatever. Just don’t interfere with this conversation.” He turned back to Jack. “Are you hurt?”

Jack paused blankly for a second. “…Huh? No. I mean, my ankle slipped but it’s better now.”

“Sit down. Let me see it.”

He knew better than to argue. He sat on the ground as Giovanni tested his swollen left ankle for breaks and damage. When the base of his leg shifted, he winced in pain.

“This looks like a patch job,” Giovanni noted.

Iris reported, “We soaked his ankle with a hyper potion for a couple minutes, but we had to keep moving.”

“You were being chased.”

“By Team Rocket, sir.”

“I see.” Giovanni’s expression remained neutral. “Were they the ones who hurt you?”

Jack said, “No, I really did slip. I was being stupid and I got it broken.”

Giovanni pulled out a compact first aid kit from his pocket as he stated, “There is no point in wallowing in self-pity. What is done is done—and you’re safe. Just do better.”

He sprayed Jack’s ankle with a potion and then wrapped it with gauze properly. “There. Keep it elevated for the rest of the night. Don’t put any weight on it. Let the potion do its job.”

Jack pulled his foot back. The cool potion and the bandages brought a bit of relief. Ignius walked over to examine it.

Ignius looked up from the ankle to commented, “You never mentioned your dad’s a gym leader.”

Jack said, “It never came up.”

Ignius huffed at him. “Never came up? Bell just told us yesterday she wanted to become a gym pokémon!”

He glanced between the charmeleon and his father. He finally admitted, “Okay, I just didn’t want a lot of questions. John gets it a lot worse but people still ask me a ton of personal questions when they find out.”

Ignius frowned. “…I didn’t think of that.”

Some rustling on the other side of the camp caught their attention. Iris strapped her sleeping bag to her pack and swung it onto her back.

Jack asked, “Where are you going?”

Iris gave an uneasy smile. “I don’t think I’m really needed. You’ve got your dad and he looks more than strong enough to keep you safe. Anyway, I need to go report to the station about Team Rocket. And, well, what happened. As long as you stay on the path, you’ll be fine. It was nice meeting you!”

With that, Iris walked back up the path.

Jack shouted, “Wait! What about Team Rocket?!”

Iris turned back around. “I’ll be fine! I know this area better than them!”

As she left, Jack gave a flat look to Giovanni.

He responded, “What? That was her own decision.”

“You scare people.”

“If she wants to make a power play, she needs to learn to do so when she has actual authority.”

“What if Team Rocket gets her?”

Giovanni scoffed. “If there was already a public announcement of their activities, they have more to worry about than some child. I imagine Interpol already has agents investigating the area.”

Jack glanced downward. “I guess.”

“Just go back to sleep, Jack. She will be fine.”

Reluctantly, Jack returned to his bedroll.

The light from the campfire died down. Ignius walked over and spat fire at it, reigniting the dying flame. The fire’s warmth spread over the camp. The honchkrow settled behind Giovanni to sleep.

Ignius looked over at Giovanni and said, “So _you’re_ the Viridian gym leader.”

“So I am,” he replied as he finally seemed to relax. “You are Ignius, I presume? I heard a lot about you from Professor Oak.”

The charmeleon’s eyes snapped wide in surprise. “You did? But I was just an assistant!”

Giovanni smiled. “You provided companionship, something he needs in his advancing age. He very much appreciated you.”

Ignius couldn’t help but bashfully glance off to the side. His tail swung from side to side. “Ah, well, I was just there doing my job. Uh…” Then Ignius asked, “I, uh, heard your gym got damaged. What happened exactly? Are we going to get to battle you soon?”

The smile immediately dropped for a more neutral expression. Giovanni stated, “A trainer came over-prepared. They swept my gym team with a gyarados, but when my last pokémon proved more difficult, they used Hyper Beam and missed.”

Jack sat up to ask, “Did they get their badge?”

“I told you to rest. It’s one in the morning.” He then added, “But yes, they did get their badge. And while they have their badge, I am on standby until the League either finishes the repairs to my gym or secures a temporary alternative. There will be no gym battles until then.”

Jack asked, “Does that mean you’re not leaving immediately?”

“I am certainly not leaving tonight. Not after flying straight from Viridian to make sure my oldest didn’t break his neck.”

Jack’s head sunk low.

Giovanni examined Jack for a moment before sighing. “Go to sleep, Jack. You have a long walk ahead of you in the morning.”

“We aren’t flying to Cerulean?”

“You certainly aren’t. You decided to walk to Cerulean. Now stick with your decision.”

The teenager grumbled as he lied back down.

 

* * *

  

The sun had only just broken through the horizon when Jack and Ignius woke up. They found the campfire already smothered and the site cleaned up. A small bowl of fresh fruit and granola and a tiny carton of milk sat to the side.

Giovanni and his honchkrow were nowhere to be found.

Jack let out his entire team and passed out their breakfast. Silence hung over them, however. He and Ignius shared a glance as breakfast passed quietly.

Once everyone had eaten, he withdrew everyone except Nausicaä. The pidgey just stood there, mindlessly pecking at the ground, while Jack packed up the last of his things.

Finally, he approached her. “Nausi? Are you okay?”

Nausicaä jumped a little and looked up at him. “Ah, yes, I’m…” She sighed, “I suppose it’s obvious. It’s not okay. What we went through was not okay.”

“…No. No it wasn’t.” Then Jack said, “But my ankle’s okay! It’s not swollen anymore.”

She didn’t reply. Instead, she flew up and perched on his cap. “Don’t stray off the path like that ever again. We almost lost you, you stupid, _stupid_ chick! If it weren’t for Ignius and that other trainer, we would’ve been sold off and _who knows what_ with you!”

Jack looked down. He muttered, “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want sorry! I want…! I… I want you to be safe.”

He couldn’t respond to that. They walked down Route Four in silence. When they reached the outskirts of Cerulean City, he noticed his father’s honchkrow circling around them.

Jack grumbled, “He could at least walk with us.”

“ _BACK OFF!_ ”

A spearow flew into Jack’s face. Nausicaä dropped down between his head and the spearow’s talons. The talons ripped at her feathers, but she slammed her wings against the spearow’s head. With the spearow disoriented, she launched herself against their attacker and tackled them down to the ground. Nausicaä flew up.

The spearow shouted, “DON’T YOU FLY AWA—ACK!”

Nausicaä dove back down and knocked the spearow further away. She wheeled around and kept dive-bombing the spearow over and over.

“STOP! AH! I’LL—DON’T!”

Jack pulled out a pokéball and flung it at the spearow. The pokéball shook violently, but it still clicked shut.

He picked up the pokéball, took out a thick disc the size of a tea saucer with a semi-sphere hole indented, and placed the pokéball in the hole. The pokéball teleported off.

“Ah! Ack!”

Jack looked over just as Nausicaä became enveloped in light. Her tiny body lurched and swayed as it more than doubled in size. When the light disappeared, Nausicaä stood in a daze in her newly evolved body. Her feathers gleamed with the new yellow and red tones, but her crest was still short and spikey, even more so than when she was a pidgey.

“Nausicaä! You evolved! You look so cool!” Jack cheered.

Nausicaä glanced over her trainer with a dazed look. “You look… smaller. This feels so strange.”

“You won’t be able to perch on my head ever again.” He laughed, “You could probably carry me!”

The honchkrow let out a loud cry and flew off towards the city.

Jack asked, “What did the honchkrow say?”

She answered, “That was just shouting for attention. He probably wanted us to see him leave.”

“If he wanted to tell us, he could’ve just landed,” he huffed. Then he gave her a big grin. “Let’s get over to Cerulean. I can’t wait for the others to see you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr Catches  
> Kane the male Spearow  
> lvl 12 at Route 4  
> Naughty  
> Keen Eye


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerulean features bountiful seas, quaint gardens, and a torn-up training ground.

Cerulean City prided in its landscapes. The flowing river, the ocean view, and the rolling hills shaped the city’s character. People pruned, weeded, and replanted their dormant gardens. The winter snow already melted away to the warm sea breeze. Buildings lined neatly along roads that twined around the natural landscape. Most businesses were built from the shells of residential homes, giving them a small-town feel. The Pokémon Center, however, stood in sharp contrast with its sleek, modern design. It was the easiest thing for Jack to spot.

Jack left everything except his team, their lunch, and some healing supplies back at the Pokémon Center. As tempting as a quick nap on a bed—even a booth—sounded after sleeping on the cold ground, remaining idle wasn’t an option. He glanced around from the Pokémon Center’s entrance and spotted his father at a nearby outdoor café with a laptop before him.

When Jack approached, Giovanni looked at him and asked, “Are you ready?”

He nodded.

“Good. There is a training spot in the local park. I want to see how you train your pokémon,” he stated as he put away his laptop.

Jack shifted his backpack nervously. “Really? Uh, okay. Yeah!”

Giovanni casually scoffed as he started walking down the street. “Ha. I won’t critique you with the same intensity I do with my gym trainers. You are not on the same skill level I expect from them.”

Jack relaxed a little and followed. “So what were you working on just now?”

“That was merely some business issues with Silph. It’s a lot of cut-and-dry—”

A voice called out, “Mr. Verrone!”

They both stopped and looked over at a woman hurrying towards them from a tiny bookstore. The woman had on a work uniform, her hair tied back, and a beaming smile on her face. “I-I don’t know if you remember me but you gave my family a grant—”

“For your family’s bookstore, correct?” Giovanni quickly guessed.

The woman’s smile grew wider. “Yes, yes! I never got to properly thank you! We’re finally big enough to do some major renovations and expand our selection! If there’s anything we can do for you, let us know!”

“I appreciate the sentiment. Take care of yourself,” he pleasantly replied as he waved goodbye.

“You, too!” The woman went back to the bookstore.

As soon as the woman disappeared, Giovanni’s smile vanished. They started walking again and he questioned, “Tell me, Jack. What have you been training your pokémon to do?”

Jack moved his hands about in a circle as he answered, “I’ve been trying to get my pokémon to use moves without a command. You know, so I don’t have to shout them or so they can counter faster.”

“I thought as much. Your pidgeotto battled rather self-sufficiently against that wild pokémon.”

The two of them continued on as they walked to the training grounds. A couple people along the way stopped them, but the walk was a surprisingly straightforward shot.

In sharp contrast to the lush and clean park surrounding it, the training grounds were nothing more than flat, bare ground. Some rocks jutted out of the ground in one area while massive holes circled with caution tape and cones scattered the area. Scorch marks, puddles, and piles of slime littered the entire training grounds. Yet trainers and their pokémon ignored the destruction as they went through exercises, practice rounds, and battles.

Jack looked out at the entire scene and noted, “There must have been some big battle earlier….”

“No.” Giovanni said, “This is just how training is.”

“I’ve never seen any gym get wrecked like this!” After a pause, Jack corrected, “Aside from what that gyarados did to your gym.”

“Let’s not get distracted. You are here to train.”

“Ah, right.” He called out his entire team. Together they went through stretches and exercises with Jack counting their pace. All the while, Jack couldn’t help but feel his father watching him.

Jack said, “Okay, let’s go through our attacks. Sen, you first.”

“You are doing this one at a time?” Giovanni asked.

He responded, “Yeah?”

“Which one wanted to become a gym pokémon?”

Bell chirped, “Oh, that’s me!”

Giovanni looked over Bell. “A nidoran. Let me train her for this session. I can at least answer any questions she has about gyms.”

Jack asked her, “Is that okay with you?”

“He knows about gyms?” Bell fidgeted enthusiastically. “Then yes! Let’s train right now!”

As Giovanni and Bell stepped aside, Jack commanded, “Use Poison Sting ten times.”

Sen cycled through her moves, thrusting at air with her stingers. When Jack stepped in to correct her stance, he made her repeat the attack a few more times.

“Hey! There you are!”

John approached. He looked a bit overheated and out-of-breath. “Did you get here before me again?”

Jack said, “Actually, I just got into Cerulean.”

“Really? Could’ve gotten here by last night if you just went on that hiking trail.” Then he noticed Giovanni and waved. “Hello, Mr. Verrone!”

Giovanni gave him a dismissive wave before correcting Bell’s stance.

John huffed, “Y’know, your dad’s a bit of a prick. Guess I know where you get it.”

“And you’re not?”

“Well, birds of a feather. I’m an asshole,” John admitted. “Now let’s just get down to business and battle already.”

Jack gave him a flat scowl. “Not now. I’m trying to spend time with my dad.”

“Eh. You could just talk to his answering machine. It’s the same thing.”

“Genny, get out there!”

John smirked as he hopped back and tossed out a pokéball. “That’s more like it!”

The pokéball opened up and John’s pidgeotto appeared. Genny froze in place as the pidgeotto sized her up.

Jack shouted, “You can do it, Genny! Hyper Fang!”

Genny braced herself and lunged at the pidgeotto. Her fangs sunk into the pidgeotto’s wings and she clung on for dear life even as the other wing kicked up sand into her face. The pidgeotto cried and screamed as they beat Genny over and over with the other wing until, finally, Genny had to let go.

“Quick Attack!”

Before the pidgeotto could move, Genny bashed her head into the bird’s stomach. The pidgeotto fell back.

John called, “You alright, Britt?”

The pidgeotto coughed out, “I’ll… live.”

Genny stared at the fallen pidgeotto. “I… I did it. I beat a pidgeotto.” She turned to Jack in absolute joy. “I beat a pidgeotto!”

“You did it, Genny! Now rest up. You did great!” Jack said with a wide smile.

John returned his pidgeotto to their pokéball. “Yeah, yeah, don’t rub it in.” He tossed out another pokéball and a rattata showed up.

Jack looked back at his team in thought. “I guess it’s just courteous to send out Igniu—”

Bell charged into the battle.

She swung her whole body around and kicked the rattata in the face, sending the poor thing tumbling back.

“WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!” John returned his rattata immediately. “What the hell?!”

Giovanni walked to Jack’s side and scolded Bell, “I know you are very eager to demonstrate what you learned, but I won’t tolerate this kind of indiscipline. Come back here.”

Bell returned to Giovanni’s side.

John protested, “Mr. Verrone, you can’t just join in! This was between me and Jack!”

As he ushered Bell away, Giovanni instructed, “You need to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Otherwise, you will just lose your footing and fall.”

Bell replied, “Yes, sir!”

John sent out his squirtle Hector. “Let’s just get the battle going again!”

“Your turn, Sen,” Jack said.

Hector and Sen stared at each other for a moment.

Hector grinned at her. “You look really different as a beedrill.”

Sen flatly replied, “What makes you say that? The wings? The stripes? Or maybe the extra two giant stingers?”

“Focus Energy!”

“Withdraw!”

Sen drew in a deep breath and tuned out everything except for her target, who ducked into his shell. She jabbed at the shell with a stinger one and then twice with the second scrapping an arm. Then she tapped at the shell in annoyance.

“Now!”

Hector tackled Sen out of the air.

She swung one of her giant stingers around and bashed Hector in the head twice. The squirtle retaliated by ramming his shoulder into her torso.

Sen staggered back. Then, in a blink of an eye, she stabbed at Hector’s torso.

Hector fell back from the force and ducked into his shell. “I give, I give!”

John withdrew his squirtle. He noted to himself, “Looks like I’ve got more training to do.” Then he gave Jack a grin. “And you got good! Or you’re showing off in front of your dad. Either which way, that was way more interesting than spamming Tackle.”

Jack asked, “You’re not angry about Bell?”

“What’s the point? It’s not like Lord Brandy’s all that defensive as a rattata.”

“Yeah, that’s true—wait, what’s his name?”

John said, “I’m heading to the Pokémon Center. My pokémon were already tired after all the training we did, and an actual competent battle didn’t really help. À tout à l’heur!”

As John left, Tido grumbled, “So _now_ he says it right.”

Jack asked Giovanni, “How was that?”

Giovanni stated, “That was decent. Your beedrill was a little more forceful than she needed to be.”

He glanced at Sen before looking back at Giovanni. “What should I have done?”

“When it comes to power, you don’t need to use your full force. Applying the right amount of strength to the right spot will get you better results than using up all of your pokémon’s strength continuously.” Then he added, “This is also vital to prevent accidents.”

“Accidents?”

Giovanni nodded. “Yes. Controlling your attacks prevents accidental deaths. As a trainer, it is vital you learn this now. Some don’t learn this until they enter an occupation that requires such precision.”

“It sounds really obvious, to be honest,” Jack said with a shrug.

He motioned towards the torn-up training grounds. “Do you see control demonstrated here? No. This is nothing more than flailing about with newfound power. For something so obvious, too many learn this lesson the hard way.”

Jack looked over the training grounds as several trainers battle in full force. He jumped when he felt his father’s hand pat his shoulder.

“Let’s continue your training,” he said. 

 

* * *

 

Jack and Giovanni returned to the Pokémon Center. They sat down with dinner spread across their table. Jack chattered between bites while Giovanni made occasional replies. Genny slept by Jack’s side, completely exhausted from training.

Jack rambled, “And once I go over to Saffron, maybe I’ll take a trip to Goldenrod and pick up some souvenirs.”

“Focus on your League challenge,” Giovanni firmly said. “Do not allow yourself to become distracted by every new thing. You still have a task to complete.”

“Oh. Right. Yeah, I’ll save a trip to Johto for after the challenge.”

“That said, there are a fair number of attractions in Saffron City. If you walk around, you will find plenty aside from the tourist traps.”

Jack left his fork lingering on his plate as he asked, “What kind of places did you find there?”

“You will have to find that on your own. Besides,” Giovanni added, “that is the entire point of travelling. I cannot simply hand you that experience.”

“I guess Silver and I will find them ourselves,” Jack casually said.

Giovanni looked at Jack pointedly. “What now?”

Jack stared back in confusion. “I was thinking maybe Silver could come with me at some point.”

“I already told him no. Are you two planning to travel together behind my back?” His tone was even and measured.

Jack quickly shook his head. “No! I didn’t even know you gave him an answer. It was just something we were thinking about.”

Giovanni heaved a sigh in exasperation. “That boy needs to learn patience. He will get his chance to challenge a region once your challenge is done.”

Jack mentioned, “He’s only been in Viridian and Pallet ever since… years. Maybe he needs to just get out. Besides, I’m the one that suggested it.”

“Silver has been testing me over this issue for months. Your ‘suggestion’ became his latest excuse to wear me thin. I don’t have the time to allow him to indulge in his wanderlust.”

“Maybe Mom could?”

Giovanni stared off elsewhere with a deep scowl. Finally, he sighed, “Fine. I will consider speaking with Lilaea on this. God knows the boy could use some quality time with his mother.”

Jack smiled.

“However.”

The smile disappeared.

Giovanni gave Jack a leveled glare. “Do not start coordinating with your brother like this. I have a lot on my plate right now and I am still angry with you for walking into Mount Moon as you did. Do not think otherwise simply because of my relief concerning your health—”

A phone rang.

Giovanni dug his phone out of his pocket with a curse under his breath. His tone immediately changed to neutral and professional when he answered. “Hello?” His scowl immediately dropped for alarm and returned even harsher. “I’m in Cerulean. Do you want me to meet at the police station or…? Understood. No, I have my own flying-type. I will see you there.”

He hung up the phone and dropped some money on the table. “I need to leave now. Here’s some cash for food. Spend it wisely.”

Jack got up as his father started hurrying out. “Wait! What happened?”

“This is gym leader business. Don’t concern yourself over it,” he quickly answered. Then, just when he took one step outside, Giovanni turned at Jack. “Do _not_ get yourself in any more trouble! I will send my personal team to watch you if you even get within fifty feet of Team Rocket’s affairs again. Understood?”

Jack hesitated. Then he nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Train well.”

With that, Giovanni let out his honchkrow and took off into the sky.

As Jack slowly returned to his table, he noted Genny staring down at the ground with concern etched on her face. He sat down next to her and asked, “What’s wrong?”

She looked up to answer, but then she stopped herself. She shook her head and quickly told him, “No, it’s okay. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Jack muttered, “If you say so.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The road is a little too quiet...

Early that morning, Jack and Ignius waited by the door of the Cerulean Gym. Although the lights were on, the doors were still locked tight. An employee would pass by the doors but paid no heed to anything outside the warm gym.

The chill in the air seeped into their bones. Jack kept Ignius tucked in his jacket. While Ignius tried to doze off, Jack hummed the entirety of several songs during the wait. A few bars into a new song, Ignius grumbled at him.

“It’s too early for this, Jack….” Ignius nagged. “You already went through a playlist worth of songs. It’s gotta stop.”

“It’s not hurting you, so let me hum.” Jack started leaning against the gym’s wall.

Ignius muttered inaudibly to himself and ducked his head back into Jack’s jacket.

A few minutes later, Jack heard a click at the door. He walked over and the doors automatically opened. Finally, he entered the gym.

The Cerulean Gym’s reception area was a circular room with two hallways branching off to the side. Employees cleaned the last specks of dust off the sooth sand-colored tiles and straightened lobby chairs with some light blue-green color Jack couldn’t name. Posters of ballets and musicals lined the sparkling blue walls, some of which Jack vaguely recalled seeing. Despite the décor, the layout of the lobby was almost exactly the same as Pewter’s gym: the medical facility and training gym on opposite ends and the battle arena ahead.

The reception desk, however, caught Jack’s immediate attention. It was wider with multiple pamphlets across it, and it looked like it was made from an aquarium with tiny fish. As he got closer, he found that the desk was indeed a narrow aquarium. The tiny fish were only mechanical fish that darted to and fro with some current. Jack couldn’t tell if the seaweed was genuine or plastic, but he recognized many freshwater aquatic plants his mother kept in her own aquarium back home.

“May I help you?”

Jack finally looked up at the receptionist.

The receptionist, a young blue-haired woman, gasped at the sight of him and cooed, “Little Jack!”

Ignius immediately started howling with laughter and got dropped onto the ground for that.

Jack grumbled, “Don’t call me that. Who even are you?”

“Well, aren’t you rude! Lilaea would never raise someone like that! Must’ve been Giovanni’s influence,” she snapped.

“How do you know my mom?” Then it dawned on him. His tone fell completely flat as he said, “You’re part of the Rivers family, right?”

Violet Rivers tapped on Jack’s forehead while she condescendingly remarked, “Finally using that brain. You didn’t get enough coffee this morning, huh?”

“Cut me some slack. I only knew Misty—and it’s been _years_ since I last saw her!”

Violet smiled wistfully. “You two were the cutest back then! Running around the gym leader conferences and giving our parents a hard time. I still have pictures!”

“Can I sign up for the gym facilities, already?” he asked.

She huffed indignantly. “I’m texting your mom about this!”

“What’s going on?”

Misty Rivers walked up to the two of them with clear irritation. She took one look at the situation and remarked to her older sister, “Violet, if you’re going to give my challengers a hard time, at least sign them up.”

Violet gestured towards Jack. “But it’s Lilaea’s kid!”

“Huh?” She stared at him for a second before going, “Jack?”

He gave a tired wave. “Hi, Misty.”

Misty raised her eyebrows in shock. “Wow! I didn’t even recognize you! How have you been?”

“I’m good. I finally started my League challenge,” he said.

“And you’re here for a gym battle!” She looked over Ignius. “…You have other pokémon, right?”

Ignius said with a straight face, “Nope. We’re going into this challenge alone. Just the two of us.”

Jack corrected, “I just came here to see what I can do before signing up for a battle.”

Violet stated, “Gym facilities are reserved only for trainers who are scheduled to battle. What you _can_ do is go see one of our water ballets, though!”

Misty shook her head. “All of our water ballets are sold out right now. You’ll have to wait a few months for a ticket.”

Ignius’s shoulders slumped. He stared at Misty for a moment before hiding his disappointment with a casual smile. “There’s always next time.”

“We need to train anyway,” Jack replied. “I hear your team’s really tough.”

Misty gave Jack a confident smirk. “You heard right. I make people work for my badge!”

Violet flatly commented, “I thought you gave badges out of pity.”

Misty shouted at her, “It’s _you_ who gave that badge out of pity! You three didn’t even let me have a say in that!”

She then sighed in exasperation and quickly said to Jack, “Let’s just talk in the break room. I could use some coffee, anyway. You and your charmeleon look like you could use some too.”

“Ignius,” corrected Ignius as he started following her.

She lead them into a back room with plain white walls, a dozen cabinets and drawers, a large plastic table with plastic chairs, a microwave, a mini fridge, and a coffee maker. The break room was relatively clean, aside from some crumbs on the table left behind by someone’s breakfast. Misty grabbed a package of coffee grounds from a drawer, dumped it into the maker, and started it. After a second, she quickly grabbed a clean coffee pot and set it in place.

As she pulled out three paper cups, Jack said, “How did you become a gym leader so soon? John and I only just started our challenges.”

She glanced over at him in slight confusion. “John? …Oh, John Oak.” As she answered, she waved one of her hands about in general gestures. “I took an apprenticeship under my mom. It’s pretty easy when your entire family runs the gym. Why didn’t you take one?”

Jack could only shrug. “I started to, but it stopped after the divorce. I think Silver’s his apprentice now.”

“Silver?” Misty made a confused frown. “I’ve never seen him at any of the League meetings. I see Janine with Koga, but never Silver.”

“That’s… weird. I guess I just got it wrong.”

“You might still be right. There’s more than just the meetings and the battles to being a gym leader, after all,” she replied.

The coffee maker creaked as it slowly filled up the coffee pot.

Jack slipped his bag down off his shoulder but hesitated when he saw a thin layer of dirt on the floor. He set his bag on the table instead. He commented, “I don’t know how anyone does all that gym leader stuff. I mean, you’re my age and you’re doing a full-time job.”

“It’s not like I’m doing this by myself. My sisters handle the management half of the job. I battle and work as the gym’s public face.” Misty poured the fresh coffee into the cups and passed a cup each to Ignius and Jack.

Ignius breathed in the coffee’s steam and smiled. He mentioned, “That’s really something I don’t envy anyone of. I remember how much public stuff drained Professor Oak. He likes it, but me and the other assistants had to fill in for his actual work a lot.”

Her voice betraying her surprise, Misty couldn’t help but say, “You worked as an assistant for Professor Oak? What was that like?”

“It was work,” he replied. “A lot of filing, a lot of carrying stuff around, a lot of coffee making… You know, busy work. The assistants with degrees do all the heavy duty research with him.”

A second passed, and then Misty snapped her fingers and scowled. “I forgot! Jack, I need you to do a favor for me.”

Jack finished sipping on his coffee before saying, “Favor?”

“A friend of mine went completely silent the last couple days,” she stated. “His name is Bill. Normally he doesn’t stop talking to me about water pokémon, but every now and then he’ll go completely silent—like right now. I’m pretty sure he’s okay, but he forgets to do stuff like _eat_ when he’s doing research. I’d go check on him myself but I’m tied up with the water ballet for the next week. Do this for me and…” She tapped her foot in thought. “…and I’ll let you watch the rehearsals. For free.”

“Sure! Where does he live?” Jack quickly asked.

“He lives in the cottage on Cerulean Cape. It’s the only building there. You can’t miss it. Don’t feel too rushed getting to him, though. He won’t starve to death.” After a second, she added, “…At least, I’m pretty sure he won’t.”

Jack wondered what he could say in response to that, but ultimately, he couldn’t find a response.

Misty checked the clock. Disappointment washed over her face before she chugged the still-hot coffee. When she finished, she tossed the paper cup in the trash and stated, “I have to get back to work. Let me know if Bill is still alive, okay?”

She opened the break room’s door and halted in place.

Then she shouted, “WERE YOU EAVESDROPPING ON ME?! OH MY GOD, I TALK TO _ONE_ BOY AND THIS IS HOW YOU ACT?! GET BACK TO WORK! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN LIFE!”

The door closed behind her and her shouting echoed dully into the room. Jack and Ignius could only finish their coffee in silence.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**No Battles On Bridge**

Under Penalty Of Fine

Cerulean Police Department

 

Jack noted the sign posted before Nugget Bridge with curiosity. The wood looked freshly cut and the paint recently dried. As he crossed Nugget Bridge, he spotted several places where the bridge was damaged: scorch marks, broken railings, and gaping holes in the planks littered the bridge, all roped off with caution tape. At one point an entire section of railing went missing, completely broken off.

No control.

He had Bell and Genny out with him as he crossed the bridge. The three of them held a silence that Jack simply could not read. Was this silence awkward? Did they want to say something but not around him? Was he just trying to read too much into a comfortable silence? When they finally made it to the other side, Jack glanced around for something to draw his attention away.

Something yellow peaked out of the tall grass.

Jack stopped and pulled out a great ball. Did abra live around here or closer to the cities? He couldn’t recall. But the yellow looked like either skin or something with short fur.

Bell loudly asked, “What’s wrong, Jack?”

“Shh!” he quickly hushed. He cautiously inched his way closer and closer to the grass. He needed an abra on his team. He _needed_ a psychic-type! Even an unevolved drowzee could sweep the entire Kanto region with the right training—and here was an abra! Just a little patience and dedication, as well as John’s cooperation, and he would have an alakazam on his team. Such power, such prowess, such potential—

Jack felt his feet sweep out under him and his face crashed into the dirt with a _thud._ Laughter boomed out as he pushed himself off the hard ground.

A bellsprout hopped out of the grass. “Wow, I could see the greed in your eyes! If you can’t even pay attention enough not to get wiped, how are you gonna get things done?”

Jack shouted, “Get ‘em!”

Genny and Bell both dashed out. Genny zipped around and slammed her body into the bellsprout’s before zipping away. Bell took the opening and slashed the grass-type with a Scratch.

“Two against one? Alright! Bright it!” The bellsprout grabbed Bell with a vine and threw her towards Jack and then snapped a Vine Whip at Genny’s feet.

Genny took a quick glance towards Bell before dashing in one more time. A Vine Whip cracked against her head and she stumbled and rolled into the grass. The bellsprout snorted at her but then hit the ground as Bell knocked him down with Double Kick. Just when the bellsprout wrapped Bell with another vine, Genny leapt out of the grass and Tackled the enemy pokémon hard enough to send the grass-type into the air.

Jack tossed out his great ball.

The great ball bounced against the bellsprout’s head and drew the pokémon in. It landed in the grass. A second passed….

_Click!_

Jack fished the great ball out of the grass and let the bellsprout out. He gave the bellsprout his most intense stare.

The bellsprout dryly remarked, “You’re not scary.”

“Why did you trip me?” Jack questioned.

“Because it’s hilarious. You were trying soooo hard to sneak up on me that you didn’t pay any attention to my vine.”

He tried imitating his father’s glare and tone as he said, “Well it’s not.”

“You know what you look like? You look like this.” The bellsprout crossed his leaves and leveled a glare, which looked rather cute with his tiny eyes and lack of a snout and eyebrows.

Bell stifled a snort.

Genny reassured, “ _I_ think you look scary!”

Bell leaned over to her to whisper, “That’s sweet of you, but you don’t have to bolster Jack’s ego.”

Jack glanced between the three pokémon before sighing, “Never mind. What’s your name?”

The bellsprout perked up. “You’re letting me pick my own name?”

Jack couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment. “Oh yeah, the new name new life thing. I forgot. Uh…”

“Cuz I’ve got an awesome name to go by!” said the bellsprout as he lifted his head up in pride.

Bell walked closer and stopped by Jack’s shoe. “Well, let’s hear it!”

“I am… Deadly Nightshade!” he proclaimed with his head high and his leaves flared out.

Jack stated, “I can’t fit that in the pokéball registry.

Deadly Nightshade’s leaves drooped. “What?”

“It’s too many characters. I’ll have to abbreviate it,” he explained.

“Well uh…” Deadly Nightshade tapped his root. “DNShade?”

“That fits perfectly. I’ll see you at the Pokémon Center.” Jack pulled out the teleportation disc from his backpack.

“Wait, where are you going? You can’t just box me!” DNShade protested as he wrapped Jack’s hand with a vine.

“It’s just a quick errand! I’ll be back by this evening!” Jack said as he peeled DNShade’s vine off. “I need a grass-type anyway. I’ve got Misty’s gym to look forward to.”

DNShade considered this, then he released Jack’s arm, crossed his leaves, and sullenly said, “Fiiiine.”

Jack returned the bellsprout to his pokéball and used the disc to send him to the box. Then, he felt someone tug at his pant leg. When he looked down, he saw Bell gazing up at him.

“You’re going to switch one of us out, aren’t you?” she plainly stated.

Genny’s ears drooped. “It’s most likely me.”

Jack quickly said, “No, I’m just going to rotate you guys out. I’ll figure out what to do later.”

Bell frowned deeply. “But you said it yourself: You need a grass-type for Misty’s gym. And bellsprout is a grass/poison-type. That makes three poison-types. You can’t keep all of us.”

“Just give me time to figure stuff out,” Jack repeated as he tucked the teleportation disc back into his bag.

“Yeah but—” Bell halted in place as she became wrapped in light. Her form bulked up and she grew a full foot in size, towering over Genny and nearly reaching Jack’s knees. When the light disappeared, Bell stared off in a complete stun. Her spots were still tiny blue freckles that made her look like a speckled blueberry.

Bell, her eyes still wide, finally said, “I guess that one battle did it.”

Jack commented, “Honestly, I was kinda expecting you to evolve pretty soon after Dad trained you. The nidoran family’s his specialty. Plus everyone’s been evolving one after another.”

Genny looked down to the ground and folded her ears against herself completely.

Jack went over to Genny and lifted her up to his shoulders. “Which means you’ll evolve by tomorrow at this rate. I won’t be able to carry you like this for too much longer.”

Genny still seemed a little down. “I suppose.”

Bell watched Genny’s expression for a bit. She said, “Let’s forget about all that boxing stuff. We’ve got that errand to run. So. Jack. Who’s Bill?”

As they walked along, Jack started saying, “How am I supposed to know? Bill’s a common name.”

A second passed in silence.

Jack grumbled to himself, “I should’ve asked Misty for his last name.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr Catches
> 
> Deadly Nightshade aka DNShade the male Bellsprout  
> lvl 14 at Route 24  
> Rash  
> Chlorophyll
> 
> Dotta the male Caterpie  
> lvl 8 at Route 25  
> Hardy  
> Shield Dust


End file.
